Rosalind O'Connor/NBCAfter Pete Davidson posted a disturbing note on Instagram Saturday saying he didn't "want to be on this earth anymore," his friend, rapper and actor Machine Gun Kelly, tweeted that he was getting on a plane headed to New York City to support Davidson. Well, he made good on his word.

"im in the plane now on the way to see Pete. gonna make sure hes good, i promise. cant have my boy in the darkness like that," Kelly tweeted. The two men became friends this past summer after they filmed a movie together called Big Time Adolescence.

E! Online reports that after Saturday Night Live last night, Davidson and Kelly were seen together driving in an SUV. When Davidson dropped Kelly off, they exchanged a hug before Davidson continued on.

Police performed a "wellness check" on Davidson on Saturday before the show aired, and he was said to be "fine." His former fiancee Ariana Grande tweeted and then deleted a message to Davidson, saying she was downstairs at the SNL studios if he needed her.

On Saturday night, a smiling Davidson was seen briefly on SNL, introducing Miley Cyrus and Mark Ronson's second musical performance. He didn't appear in any other sketches, though he had a part in a pre-taped segment.

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This website uses cookies. By continuing to use this website you are giving consent to cookies being used. Visit our Privacy and Cookie PolicyMOUNT PLEASANT, S.C., Dec. 16, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- This holiday season, Spine Pain Center has partnered with Lowcountry Orphan Relief (LOR) in their Annual Stocking Tree Drive . Every year, this drive provides a mini stocking to children in underprivileged areas. Both of Spine Pain Centers locations  Mount Pleasant and North Charleston  are participating in this partnership.



Simply stop by one of Spine Pain Centers offices and choose a mini stocking  or several  hanging from their holiday tree. Each mini stocking contains the gender and age of a child and a brief list of essential items for a local child in need. No child should go without small acts of kindness, especially during the holidays.

Lowcountry Orphan Relief was begun by founder Lynn Young after witnessing the tremendous needs of abandoned, neglected, and abused children in South Carolina metropolitan areas. Today, they work in direct connection with government agencies, non-profits, foster parents, and schools to serve the individual needs of children in these situations.

They provide bags or suitcases filled with items that help children feel a sense of normalcy during times that are anything but normal. Their website reports providing clothes for more than 28,000 children in the Charleston Tri-County area since 2006. All this is possible through donations from members of the community and the volunteers who collected those donations, like our very own Spine Pain Center. These volunteers fill donation bags with love and essential items needed to restore dignity and hope to children who have been removed from their parents custody and/or are living in area foster care and shelters. The bags often include a two week supply of school supplies, toiletries, books, and clothing. In addition, they host a number of events every year to raise funds and awareness within the tri-county area.

Every year as the holiday season approaches, LOR organizes a Stocking Tree Drive. Mini stockings are distributed to their partner companies and hung on their holiday trees in prominent areas. The stockings are collected by LOR by December 17 and distributed to those children who need them the most.

As Dr. Joseph Carew of Spine Pain Center says, In this season of giving, there is none so deserving as a child who feels like they have been abandoned by the world. Bringing the light back into their eyes is the best gift possible.

Dr. Carew and the rest of the staff at Spine Pain Center work hard to help everyone in the North Charleston and Mount Pleasant areas to enjoy the holidays. By providing treatments for herniated discs, elbow bursitis, and many more painful debilitating conditions, they can help ensure that you never have to miss a holiday celebration because of pain.

To donate, contact one of the Spine Pain Center offices. Call 843-606-2412 for their North Charleston office, located at 5633 Rivers Ave., or 843-884-8444 for their Mount Pleasant office located at 1051 Johnnie Dodds Blvd.



Colin Kroll, a co-founder and CEO of popular trivia app HQ Trivia, has reportedly died from an overdose. He was 34.

The NYPD confirmed that Kroll was found in his Spring Street apartment after midnight today. TMZ reports, "Kroll's girlfriend called police early Sunday and asked them to check up on him after she was unable to get in touch. Cops went to downtown Manhattan to do a welfare check, entered his apartment and found Kroll's body in his bedroom with drug paraphernalia nearby."

"Marijuana and heroin were found nearby, and he was declared dead at the scene, the source said. Cops said an envelope containing white powder was also recovered," according to the Post.

The medical examiner's office will determine cause of death.

Kroll and Rus Yusupov co-founded HQ Trivia, which allows players to tune in for a live, 15-minute trivia show with cash prizes. The app, dubbed a "millennial Jeopardy," raised $15 million at a $100 million valuation. However, Recode had reported that when Kroll was at TwitterKroll created Vine, the 6-second video sharing app, which was acquired by Twitter in 2012he allegedly "exhibited creepy behavior toward female colleagues." Twitter fired 18 months after the acquisition.

In a statement released in March, Kroll said, "As reported in the media, I was let go from Vine four years ago for poor management. It was a painful experience, but an eye-opening one that served as a catalyst for professional development and greater awareness in the office. I now realize that there are things I said and did that made some feel unappreciated or uncomfortable. I apologize to those people. Today, I'm committed to building HQ Trivia into a culture-defining product and supporting the dedicated team that makes it all possible."

So sad. // HQ Trivia CEO Colin Kroll, 35 years old, has died of an apparent drug overdose. https://t.co/O4ppuOyXcf  Shaun King (@shaunking) December 16, 2018

A relative of Kroll's told the Daily News, "We really honestly dont even know all the details. Im sure they will unfold as they may but please keep in mind that people are grieving."

Kroll had told the NY Times that HQ Trivia was based in NYC and not tech-centric San Francisco because "our inspiration is more from media and TV than it is from technology."Sport

Lionel Messi wins Ballon dOr 2021, claims record seventh trophy

Messi, 34, held off the challenge of Bayern Munichs Robert Lewandowski, Real Madrids Karim Benzema and Chelseas Jorginho to collect the prize and move two clear in his long-running battle with five-time winner Cristiano Ronaldo, who was among the 30 players shortlisted but did not feature in the top three for the first time in 11 years.Thank you for reading!

Please log in, or sign up for a new account and purchase a subscription to continue reading.The new Irish AG, Gerard Hogan One of the most controversial proposals in the draft Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market is Article 11 [Katposts here , this being a provision that would introduce at the EU level a new related right in favour of press publishers.



The EU proposal follows legislation to a similar effect, which was adopted in Germany and Spain, though with different mechanisms: a new related right in the former, and an amendment to the quotation exception in the latter. One of the most controversial proposals in theis Article 11, this being a provision that would introduce at the EU level a new related right in favour of press publishers.The EU proposal follows legislation to a similar effect, which was adopted in Germany and Spain, though with different mechanisms: a new related right in the former, and an amendment to the quotation exception in the latter.





A few years ago (in 2013), Germany was in fact the first country in Europe to introduce a new related right in favour of press publishers. This is aimed at giving them control over third-party unlicensed use of their content. Legislation was adopted in an economic context - that of the press sector in Europe - of constantly declining revenue.





Sections 87f-h of the German Copyright Act ( of the German Copyright Act ( UrhG ) provide for a right of press publishers to exploit their content commercially for one year, thus preventing third parties from displaying excerpts of press content (other than single words and very short ones) without paying a fee.





opt-in, rather than opt-out, in the immediate aftermath of the amendment to the UrhG). The German press publishers' right is waivable, and apparently a significant number of publishers in Germany have decided to waive it in favour of indexation by news aggregation services like Google News (which became, in the immediate aftermath of the amendment to the UrhG).





here and here , litigation has ensued in Germany over the actual enforceability of the right. In the context of As The IPKat reported, litigation has ensued in Germany over the actual enforceability of the right. In the context of litigation between the collecting society responsible to collect royalties in favour of publishers (VG Media) and Google, the latter has been arguing that the German right would not be enforceable because the German Government failed to notify the EU Commission of this initiative, as is instead required for 'technical regulation' under Article 8(1) of Government failed to notify the EU Commission of this initiative, as is instead required for 'technical regulation' under Article 8(1) of Directive 98/34 Apparently the German Government failed to notify the Commission because of impending elections in Germany.





As early as 2015, Bo Vesterdorf (former president of what is now the General Court) argued that both the German and Spanish initiatives in favour of press publishers would be unenforceable due to their missed notification to the EU Commission.





decided in 2017 to make a referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and seek guidance on the very point of missed notification. Landgericht Berlin,in 2017 to make a referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) and seek guidance on the very point of missed notification. The court before which these proceedings are pending, the





VG Media, C-299/17. The case is now





Earlier this week Advocate General (AG) Hogan issued his Opinion . H e advised the CJEU to rule that - indeed - the German Government should have notified the Commission. Failure to comply with this obligation means that the right is unenforceable.





Let's see how the AG reasoned.





IPKat-approved stationery

for notifications to the EU Commission The German related right as a 'technical regulation'





section 87g(4) UrhG, because The AG noted that the key provision to consider is the one inUrhG, because this provision curtails or restricts the provision of services provided by internet search engines like Google:

It shall be permissible to make press products or parts thereof available to the public unless this is done by commercial operators of search engines or commercial operators of services which edit the content [...]

The AG drew an analogy with Berlington Hungary and Others , a case in which the CJEU held that Hungarian legislation which Directive 98/48 (which amended Directive 98/34) only insofar as it could significantly influence the nature of the products or the marketing of the products. That would be so in a case like the one at issue, because a prohibition on operating slot machines outside casinos could significantly influence the nature or the marketing of the products used in that context, which constitute goods that may be covered by Article 34 TFEU, by reducing the outlets in which they can be used. restricted the organization of certain games of chance to casinos would be a technical regulation within the meaning of Article 1(11) of(which amended Directive 98/34)insofar as it could significantly influence the nature of the products or the marketing of the products. That would be so in a case like the one at issue, because a prohibition on operating slot machines outside casinos could significantly influence the nature or the marketing of the products used in that context, which constitute goods that may be covered by, by reducing the outlets in which they can be used.





According to the AG, in the present case the same could be said:

the provisions of Paragraphs 87f(1) and 87g(4) of the UrhG could have the effect of significantly affecting the nature or marketing of these internet services by exposing the operators of search engines to either a prohibitory order or a claim for damages where the internet search enables the reader to access more than a few words or a very short excerpt from the press product in question. It is striking that there is no similar prohibition or the potential of legal liability in the case of other members of the public (including commercial operators who do not come within the saving exception provided for in Paragraph 87g(4) of the UrhG) accessing or using this press product [this remark seems to suggest an impression, on the side of the AG, that the German legislation is not really aimed at operators other than Google: on this point, see further at para 38 of the Opinion] . A new legislative measure of this kind clearly has the potential to affect the provision of services for press products, thus potentially engaging the application of Article 56 TFEU.

In these circumstances, I consider that Paragraphs 87f(1) and 87g(4) of the UrhG amount to a technical regulation within the meaning of Article 1(11) of Directive 98/34.

EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and EU legislation (including the Enforcement Directive) seeks to establish a 'high level of protection', this is not absolute. The CJEU has in fact clarified that, especially in the context of injunctive relief, the fundamental rights of others, including the freedom of an intermediary to conduct its own business (Article 16 of the Charter), must be also considered. All this requires a fair balance of different rights be achieved. The AG also noted that, while copyright protection falls within the scope of Article 17(2) of theand EU legislation (including the) seeks to establish a 'high level of protection', this is not absolute. The CJEU has in fact clarified that, especially in the context of injunctive relief, the fundamental rights of others, including the freedom of an intermediary to conduct its own business (Article 16 of the Charter), must be also considered. All this requires a fair balance of different rights be achieved.





Having established that the German right could be considered as 'technical regulation', AG Hogan also found that it:

relates to what is described as 'information society services', ie, services provided for remuneration at a distance by electronic means and at the individual request of a recipient of services;

and is actually specifically aimed at them.

All this means that the German Government had a duty to notify the EU Commission.





Is the duty to notify a forbidden formality?



An interesting point of the Opinion relates to the argument, made by the Greek Government, that Article 5(2) of the Berne Convention, Article 3 WCT. an obligation to notify a related right constitutes a formality contrary to Article 9 TRIPS , and





The AG rejected this very idea, for the simple reason that the duty of notification would not burden individual rightholders, but rather Member States:

While failure by a Member State to notify a draft technical regulation in accordance with Article 8(1) of Directive 98/34 can result in it being inapplicable, the pre-notification obligation is imposed on Member States, rather than on individual rightholders, and any analogy with the prohibition on subjecting the enjoyment and the exercise of rights to any formality seems to me to be highly artificial. There is, moreover, no ex ante exclusion of rules dealing with copyright from the scope of the notification obligations contained in Directive 98/34 and this may be contrasted with the manner in which, for example, rules in relation to the provision of telecommunications services and financial services are specifically excluded by Article 1(5) of Directive 98/34.

The rationale of the German right



The AG also discussed the aim underpinning the initiative of the German legislature. He accepted that the advent of the internet has deeply unsettled traditional business models:

It would be foolish and naive not to recognise that the traditional commercial model of newspapers right throughout the Union  sales and advertising  has been undermined within the last 20 years by online reading of newspapers by consumers, which practice has in turn been facilitated by the advent of powerful search engines such as that operated by the defendant.Srinagar, December 16: In south Kashmir, thousands of people defying curfew and other restrictions participated in the funerals of civilian youth in different villages of Pulwama district.

Despite heavy deployment of Indian forces in the entire Pulwama district, thousands of people managed to reach and see the last glimpse of the Kashmiri martyrs.



Mourners including women, elderly and children, from near and far-off areas swarmed in native villages of the martyrs in the South Kashmir and participated in the last rites of the latest victims of Indian state terrorism. Eight of the martyrs were laid to rest amid tears and sobs in different villages of Pulwama district. Vociferous pro-freedom and anti-India slogans were raised on the occasion.

Meanwhile, multiple funerals for Zahoor Ahmad Thoker and Abid Hussain Lone were at Sirnoo and Kareemabad in Pulwama district on Sunday morning.

As many as 11 Kashmiri youth were gunned dwons by Indian troops during a cordon and search operation and firing of live ammunition including bullets, pellets and teargas shells on protesters in Kharpora Sirnoo area of Pulwama district, yesterday.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.Bitter pills to swallow

Antibiotic resistance requires immediate attention in Nepal and beyondDigital journeys

The tourism industry must adapt to the modern digitised customerIndia proposes talks on power line project

The state-owned power utility, Nepal Electricity Authority and the Central Electricity Authority of India are scheduled to meet in December to finalise the funding and implementation modalities for the New Butwal Gorakhpur Cross-Border Transmission Line Project.Mountain meltdown

Paradigm shifts will be the only way to offset the effects of climate changeNepal awaits modified Montreal Convention to domestic carriage

While the Montreal Convention 1999 (MC99) officially came into force in Nepal on Saturday with nearly eight-fold increase in compensation for airline passenger death involving international flights, clarity on whether the same provisions would apply to domestic carriage within Nepal has been awaited.Nepals jute exports to India hit Rs1.66 billion

Nepal exported jute and jute-made products worth more than Rs1.66 billion to India in first four months of the current fiscal year, a healthy rise despite the anti-dumping dutya protectionist tariff, imposed by India to protect its home market.NCP Standing Committee meeting: Partys publicity too feeble to counter planned propaganda

The ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP) has stated that its publicity campaign has been pathetic compared to the planned propaganda of different places full of resources and modern technologies.SATURDAY

His eyes followed the thread of the lines, lingered at some stanza breaks, and retraced its path from the end to the beginning.Authorities plan 60-foot Buddhas edifice in the middle of Jagadishpur Lake without permission and environment impact assessment

Kapilvastu Municipality and the Jagadishpur Lake Management Forum are preparing to construct a 60-foot tall Buddha statue in Jagadishpur Lake, Kapilvastu, by ignoring the due process required to build any constructions at a site that has been enlisted in the Ramsar Wetlands List.Nirmala rape and murder: Struggle committee announces fresh agitation

The agitating woman rights activists and locals have announced fresh protestprogrammes to mount pressure on the authorities to arrest the culprits involved in the rape and murder of Nirmala Pant.Top leaders refusing to lead House sub-panels formed to probe dodgy NAC Airbus deal conspicuous

Even as two parliamentary committees form sub-panels to probe alleged financial irregularities in the procurement of two wide-body aircraft by the Nepal Airlines Corporation, top leaders are conspicuously silent over the controversial deal.1. Yes. The new strain spreads quickly; experts are concerned. It might be in our area soon.

2. Yes. The new variant may be vaccine-resistant, which would be a huge threat.

3. No. Health experts have moved quickly to contain it; it may not reach our community.

4. No. Even if the variant arrives in Texas, researchers may have some answers by then.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say until experts have had a chance to monitor it for a while.

Vote

View ResultsBy Rita Kemigisa.

The Former Forum for Democratic Change party president Dr Kizza Besigye has distanced himself from the mis-perceived Twebereremu which many critics say was an attack to the Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi popularly known as Bobi Wine.

While addressing FDC party leaders during the Kampala Regional Conference at the Party Headquarters in Najjanakumbi, Besigye cautioned the People Power movement and politicians from fermenting ethnic divisions using the Twebereremu slogan.

Very many people have since attacked Besigye and accused him of attacking Bobi Wine.

Besigye however Sunday morning took the rebuttal to his official twitter account and apologized to Bobi Wine describing the remarks as deliberate attempts by some people to put him against fellow opposition politician Bobi Wine.

Besigye also questioned the intention of the people who decided to pick out only a 50 second clip from a speech he held for more than an hour.

He insist that Bobi Wine is not one of the people driving a tribal campaign in the country. He also cautioned the People Power movement and Hon Kyagulanyi against mixing tribalism and politics, saying the practice can be destructive to the country.

Besigye says political leaders should be responsible enough not to ferment ethnic divisions and must act to contain undesirable situations.By Ritah Kemigisa

The Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi has vowed not to give up the struggle even as police continues to foil his music shows.

This comes just a day after police cancelled his music show in Jinja and also went ahead to raid his hotel and allegedly arrested some of his team members.

Now in a statement, Bobi Wine is demanding for their release and answers as to why he is allegedly singled out and not allowed to practice his profession while his fellow artists are working.

He has demanded for a police summon if he has committed any crime.

He further attacks police for blocking him from performing at an event where he had been paid even after clearing the venue.

He meanwhile scoffs at the police raid at the hotel he booked for a night saying the people of Jinja helped him to escape.By Nelson Wesonga

The Electoral Commission has deregistered four political parties for not adhering to the Political Parties and Organisations Act, 2005.

The four are the Farmers Party of Uganda, Uganda Peoples Party, Popular Peoples Democracy and National Revolutionary Organisation.

UPPs secretary general, Reagan Bwayo and FPU official, Bombokka-Nsiko, confirmed the development, adding that the party has appealed the ECs decision.

According to the Electoral Commissions deputy spokesperson, Paul Bukenya, the parties had fallen short of the provisions of Section nine of Act, which provides for the declaration of assets and liabilities, among other requirements.

The declarations must be made within 60 days after the expiry of the first year after the issue to the party of a certificate of registration.

This leaves the country with 25 political parties.By Ritah Kemigisa

US politicians and lawyers have also condemned Uganda police for their latest raid on a hotel in which the Kyadondo East MP Robert Kyagulanyi popularly known as Bobi Wine had booked.

Their call comes just a day after police cancelled his music show in Jinja and also went ahead to raid his hotel and allegedly arrested some of his team members.

The California Democratic Representative Karen Bass said on twitter that the stifling of speech and arbitrary arrests have no place in democracy.

Meanwhile the US Congressman Bradley Sherman has asked the government of Uganda to commit to the essential principle of freedom of speech.

A Few weeks ago police issued guidelines for holding music concerts and also asked Bobi Wine to follow the right procedures, short of which he would not be allowed to hold any of his music shows.

Relatedly,

The Democratic party President Nobert Mao has called for joint plan from the opposition if they are to form a formidable force that will fight for freedom in the country.

Now Mao the act by police is unacceptable.

He says the opposition needs to unit and organize themselves and stop the infighting if they are to overcome such blocks in their struggle.By Joseph Kato

South Sudan youth refugees living in Bidibidi camp in Yumbe district have asked warring parties in their country to stop fighting to enable their return to their motherland.

Speaking at Reach A Hand Ugandas Women, Adolescents and Young people sensitization workshop earlier today, youth refugees said their suffering must be brought to an end.

The WAY program that is being implemented by UNFPA in collaboration with Ministry of Health, Ministry of Gender, will enable women and young people among refugee and host communities to live healthy, productive lives and contribute to their communities development.

It is being implemented in the districts of Arua, Yumbe, Moyo, Adjumani, Kitgum, Lamwo, Agago and Amuru, where sexual and reproductive health challenges and high prevalence of gender-based Violence are further complicated by the influx of refugees from South Sudan.



Particularly during my sojourns in South Africa, it may not be possible for me to perform the moderation function speedily. I regret the necessity of moderation but it has been rendered inevitable by the behaviour of a particular commentator whose contributions will always and without exception be rejected.





No correspondence will be entered into regarding moderation decisions.

Readers are invited to comment on blog posts. All comments require to be pre-moderated by me, and I shall reject all (a) that are not related to the Lockerbie disaster or (b) that fail to meet my -- perhaps idiosyncratic -- standards of courtesy towards other contributors. Comments will not be rejected simply because I disagree with them or because I, or other contributors, find them irritating. But comments will be rejected if they distort or misrepresent the evidence; are defamatory; or if they risk embroiling me, as publisher, in defamation proceedings. I am perfectly relaxed about being sued in respect of material which I personally have posted -- but not in respect of material that others wish to post as comments and which, in any case, I often strongly disagree with.Close Get email notifications on {{subject}} daily!

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Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items.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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Users may make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of issues relating to civil rights, economics, individual rights, international affairs, liberty, science & technology, etc. We believe this constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material. The material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.In accordance with industry accepted best practices we ask that users limit their copy / paste of copyrighted material to the relevant portions of the article you wish to discuss (no more than 50% of the source material) provide a link back to the original articleIf you are a legal copyright holder or a designated agent for such and you believe a post on this website falls outside the boundaries of "Fair Use" and legitimately infringes on yours or your clients copyright please contact [email protected] This website is owned by :Marco ZwaneveldDrijfriemstraat 522516 XR The HagueNetherlands.I will not rent, sell, share or otherwise disclose your personal information to any third party.We might contact you from time to time regarding your purchases or the services (like forums and announcement lists) you have subscribed to.Some of the 3rd party advertisers on lunaticoutpost.com may use cookiesto track peformance and/or to serve relevant ads.If you wish to read more and/or opt out of such cookies, please visit: http://www.networkadvertising.org/choices/Cebu Pacific said over the weekend it started daily flights between its hub at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga and the Bohol-Panglao International Airport. The airline said the new route was part of the carriers expansion plans in the Clark hub to cater to the catchment areas in Northern and Central Luzon. The route is expected to stimulate domestic tourism between Visayas, Central Luzon and Northern Luzon; as well as provide support for the growing Meetings, Incentives, Conferences, and Exhibitions tourism sub-industry. We are excited to commence operation of our newest route in Clark. As we expand our fleet and our route network, we look forward to supporting economic growth in Clark and its surrounding areas as well as in the province of Bohol through tourism and logistics support, Cebu Pacific director for airport services Dindo Fernando said. Cebu Pacific started commercial flights out of the Clark airport in 2006. It has served as its North and Central Luzon hub for the past 10 years.The carrier has increased its frequency out of its Clark hub by 75 percent this year, bringing the total number of flights in and out of Clark to 3,711 by the end of 2018, or equivalent to 620,540 seats. Cebu Pacific, meanwhile, has been mounting flights to and from Boholinitially from the Tagbilaran Airportsince 2004. Over the past 18 years, Cebu Pacific, along with subsidiary Cebgo, has flown close to three million passengers across thousands of flights to and from Manila, Cagayan de Oro (Laguindingan) and Davao. Cebu Pacific has maintained its leadership in the domestic markethaving flown over 11.1 million passengers across 37 destinations, 76 routes and over 2,130 weekly flights from January to September 2018.Christmas is definitely in the air. The streets are adorned with colored lights, the malls decorated with extravagant fixtures. Most homes have been stuffed with Christmas decors, too. In fact, for most Filipinos, Christmas starts as soon as the -ber months show on the calendar. The economics of Christmas has commercial importance because the period leading to the holidays is usually the peak selling period for a lot of retailers around the world. I used to work in the Philippine retail industry, and the Christmas holidays are always a peak season for the two retailers I was connected witha major supermarket company and an international beauty brand. For supermarkets, the spike in the demand for Noche Buena/Media Noche feast itemsspaghetti, fruit salad, macaroni salad, round fruits, refrigerated cakekeep the shelves busy and the sales bustling. I used to put together Christmas basket packages for everyones budgetfrom as low as P250, to as high as P3,000 for the extravagant gift-givers. For the beauty brand, different gift packs are the bread and butter, but consumers, especially women, also tend to splurge on personal care products for themselves during this seasona new velvety vanilla lotion, a cream that makes the dark spots fade away, or an evening serum that promises a youthful glow. Our consumption-oriented society has fueled our fascination for shiny new things. Our throwaway culture has created products that break quickly so consumers will commit to repeat purchases (planned obsolescence), or those that become unfashionable or baduy after a certain period (perceived obsolescence). How many times have you changed your phone in the past years just because a new model came out and you felt that what you have is no longer sufficient for your needs? How many clothes have you ripped, because they are made of poor quality, or those that are now buried deep in the closet because they arent in anymore after only a few uses? In this Christmas season, how many gifts will you buy that will break easily (like the cheap plastic toys from tiangge), or those that will no longer be uso after a few months (remember the loom bands trend?). Gift giving is a tradition that comes with the holidays. It is associated with nurturing social relations by transforming commodities into gifts, with the presents symbolizing the celebration and significance of our relationships with the people around us (Carrier, 1993; Cheal, 1987. But do we really need to buy presents for everyone, sometimes at the expense of giving thoughtless gifts, because, well, its the thought that counts? Really, how many mugs does a person need? Do you think your colleague needs another key chain to add to his 20 others that are gathering dust? How do we make our Christmas shopping sustainable and meaningful? Christmas gift-giving does not have to hurt the environment. You only need to be more mindful of your shopping choices. Below are some suggestions to make your Christmas green this year (and in the years to come). Choose local. When you buy local products, you reduce your carbon footprint. Imported products, while they are popular among Filipinos, travel from halfway around the world, contributing significant greenhouse gas emissions. Buying local, especially when you buy from micro and small companies or from social enterprises, boost their financial capabilities and help promote inclusive growth aside from helping reduce environmental damage.Put thoughts in your gifts. Dont just give gifts for the sake of giving your friends something. Make sure that what you give them is an item they really like, so you know that they will love it and use it for a long time. Bake or makecreate personalized presents. If you like baking or cooking, think of something that you can make in the kitchen and give away to your friends. This year, I chose to give homemade polvoron (my mothers specialty and own recipe), packed not in individual wrappers, but in reused glass bottles from spreads and pasta sauces. Its more fun to dig in with a spoon into that buttery perfection of polvoron, without waste from cellophane wrappers! Or if you are artsy, you can create artworks that use sustainable materials. Your friends will surely love the handcrafted pieces youll send them! Reduce wastein wrapping and in gifting. Wrap your gifts in newspaper or magazine pages, tied with a natural fiber bow like a sisal rope. You can also use cloth to wrap your giftcalled furoshiki in Japan, it is the traditional way of wrapping and transporting gifts. For presents, you can give reusable bamboo straws, tumbler, or collapsible cups to jumpstart your friends green lifestyle choices. No wrong in re-gifting. This may be controversial to some; but really, if you dont have a need for the item gifted to you, wouldnt it be nicer for someone else to use it, rather than shove it in the corner box then forget about it? At least give it a chance to be used by someone else. Christmas is no excuse for us not to be mindful of our choices. After all, protecting the environment does not need an occasion. It should be an everyday decision that each one of us make. Let this be our gift to earth this Christmas. Its our only home after all. Jonna Baquillas is a Doctor of Business Administration student at the Ramon V. del Rosario College of business of De La Salle University. She teaches marketing, brand, business and retail management classes in Asia Pacific College. She believes that everyone should take action to reduce environmental impactcollective small steps result to a huge impact. She is committed to switch to a sustainable lifestyle, one step at a time. She can be reached at [email protected]Philippine Airlines maiden flight to Antique landed at the Evelio B. Javier Airport in San Jose de Buenavista, Antique on Sunday morning. The new route will not only realize the longtime dream of many Antiquenos to be able to fly directly from their home province to Clark International Airport, but more so to South Korea, PAL Corporate Communications vice president Jose Enrique Perez de Tagle said during the Antique-Clark inaugural flight send-off ceremony at the airport. De Tagle said PAL Express would also allow residents to fly conveniently to Manila and to PALs 17 other domestic destinations like Cebu and Palawan through their growing hub in Clark. You may now fly from Clark to Seoul Incheon in South Korea also, de Tagle said. He said PAL, although it was only short-lived, had serviced Antique in the 1960s and 1970s. Transportation Undersecretary Manuel Antonio Tamayo, who spoke in behalf of Secretary Arthur P. Tugade, said he return of PAL to Antique is another historical milestone. After 12 years ago, the airport has returned to commercial operation, Tamayo said. With the flag-carrier now coming back to Antique, more locals may fly more often, he added. He further said PALs return, being the only airport in Antique, will spur the development of the whole province. Patronize the flight to sustain it, he told the Antiquenos. The PAL executive recalled that with the previous flights like that of the Asian Spiritthe latest airline to fly in Antique 10 or 12 years agostopped operation because it was not economically viable due to fewer passengers flying, preferring the roll-on roll-off. The new route of PAL, through 86-seater PR- C5910, flies from Clark to Antique and vice versa every Sunday and Tuesday. Meanwhile, Department of Tourism Assistant Secretary Roberto Alabado III, who traces his family roots from Antique, said Antiquenos must treat the airline and the airport like their babies, nurturing them so these may grow. He said the airline operation in Antique will further sustain the tourist arrivals in the province. Antique Governor Rhodora J. Cadiao, who was a former flight attendant of PAL, said that when the PAL Express touched down at the airport, memories flashed back to her mind. Civil Aviation Authority of the Philippines Director General Captain Jim C. Sydiongco was then my former boss and pilot, Cadiao said. She added that the longtime dream of Antiquenos was realized because of Senator Loren Legarda, whose dream for Antique was shared by the PAL management. That is to help spur the local economy and boost trade and tourism in the province through the airports operation.Meanwhile, Antiquenos who enjoyed the maiden flight are encouraging others to also patronize PALs flight from Antique. Ronnie Vicedo, who is on vacation with his family, said they are so lucky to have been part of the historic event, and so far, they had a very pleasant experience on board the PAL Express. I am encouraging other Antiquenos to fly through PAL, he said. He added he was happy that the PAL management has decided to once more operate in the province, so that many tourists and Antiquenos now working and residing abroad can come home more often. Antique is a very peaceful place and good for everyone to come and visit, he said. His wife Glenda added they had last come home to Antique about 12 years ago from Australia, and they are happy they were able to take the maiden flight. Also, retired public school teacher Rosanne Tordesillas Labao from Sibalom town, who is taking the flight from Antique to Clark, said she was very happy with the development in Antique. It is now easier for us to travel to Manila with the airline operation in San Jose de Buenavista, she said. Labao said she and other Antiquenos had a hard time going to Manila through the Iloilo Airport in Cabatuan town before, as they had to spend more than two hours commuting through the public transport. There are times when we feel tense that we might not be able to catch our flight, she said. But now with the PAL Express flying from Antique to Clark twice a week, she said she just has to take the tricycle from her hometown, which is next to San Jose de Buenavista, where the Evelio B. Javier airport is located. Labao said the airport is just about 30 minutes from her home. Let us patronize the flight because this is a big privilege for us, Antiquenos, she said. Also, now encouraged to fly are the 6,000 teachers of the Department of Education Antique Division, for their conferences in the different parts of the country. DepEd Undersecretary Annalyn Sevilla, who came for the occasion, said that with the PAL operation in Antique, the public school officials and teachers from the province can now conveniently travel and attend their conferences by taking the flight directly from Antique to Clark and to other domestic destinations.Almost lost in the highly toxic, politicized atmosphere which has been our lot for years on end and a variety of Christmas sounds is one of the most important documents which the United Nations initiated and nursed for years was finally crafted in Morocco two weeks ago. With 170 members signing, this document, Global Compact on Migration, will now serve as an instrument to assist governments and migrants rights entities in devising ways to fully implement the 1990 enacted UN International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of their Families, otherwise known as the Migrant Workers Convention. Thanks to the deliberate and high-minded intervention of the Philippines through our then Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York and his ragtag staff, now Foreign Affairs Secretary TeddyBoy Locsin, we will have every reason to ensure that the years of hard work done by earlier missions and our own network of migrants rights advocates will finally get due recognition. This is one solid achievement which should prod us to lead the charge in getting ASEAN and as many of the 110 countries hosting the 10-million (and counting) Filipino diaspora to put into practice the initiatives suggested in the Compact. Such a task will not be easy specially at this time when even the most advanced countries which have heretofore been havens for migrants are being blinded by isolationist thinking. Foremost of these is the United States, a country populated and prospered by migrants of all races, creed and color, which is now being torn between isolationism and its established history of accommodation and acceptance. This nation of immigrants, as the well-loved President John F. Kennedy wrote in his book of the same name, is now on the verge of descending into a country wary if not openly fearful of immigrants. It is as if the lights of safe and caring entry of that iconic symbol of migrants not only in the United States but in the whole worldthe Statue of Libertyis now dimming with President Trumps America First rhetoric. It will truly be a pity if the US, the bastion of freedom in all its forms, will now throw into the dustbin the famous inscription at the base of the statue written by Emma Lazarus, a New Yorker of consequence, a woman to the manor born as her friends said, as part of the fund raising for its erection would now be cavalierly disregarded. That powerful inscription which reads in part give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores has been the migrants creed for years since 1883. It is not only the United States among the G20 group of developed nations which has now sounded the alarm to the migrants despair. Members of the European Union have been deluged with accusations of going back on their earlier commitments to accept migrants as both a salving presence and a practical alternative to their requirements for workers in both public and private sectors since their population has slowly but surely aged.With this compact, Secretary Locsin noted in his speech before the UN migrants rights convention in Morocco, migrants, whether temporary (as in those under specific contracts) or permanent (as in those who have taken residence in the host countries),and the receiving nations will now share a document which balances the concerns of the host countries with those of their migrant population. We have defeated the notion, Secretary Locsin emphasized in that Morocco convention, that migration is bad, quite the contrary. And we did that with facts and not frightful fantasies of losses of jobs no Westerner would take. And we did it with reason by showing that migrants have been useful additions to host countries. Not fear but facts shaped our perception, reason and passion distinguished discussion at the UN, if nowhere else, and we should be proud to acknowledge that a decent regard for the opinion of mankind dictated our decision to adopt the Global Compact today. Proceeding further in elaborating the moral and practical sharing that ensues in migration flows, Secretary Locsin emphasized that no one country address it alone, nor should any leading state take the lead in saying what can be done for and about it. Migration as a shared responsibility, Locsin emphasized, is the message of the Global Compact for Migration. And that includes addressing the fears of some peoples and states that migration flows as these are today would derogate their own nationhood and unique standing as a people and as a state. By the wording of the compact, it is not and will not be the case. As Locsin noted, sovereignty is both a duty of care as it is an assertion of unlimited freedom of action. How that will translate in real life, in the day-to-day struggles of people fleeing persecution, organized crime and poverty, the impact of natural disasters or simply for want of a better state in life without enhancing the fears and confusion in peoples and states, whether migrant receiving or originating, is the challenge that we, all of us, must endeavor to overcome. We will surely be better off if we let our better angels prevail amid the furtiveness and fury of those who do not care a whit about their fellow human beings. Let the sharing begin in earnest now. Not later."The inevitable has dawned upon us." "The inevitable has dawned upon us."

It was Napoleon Bonaparte, the emperor of France who conquered most of Europe in his prime, who said let China sleep, for when she awakes, the whole world will tremble. Decades later, several European countries and Great Britain carved out for themselves special territories of China, humiliating the Chinese people and the dynasty overlords. This conquest of China was preceded by the Opium Wars involving the Qing Dynasty and Great Britain. The wars were over the trade of opium, that narcotic grown in the jungles of Burma and parts of the Middle East then under the British. The defeats of China and the forcible leases of territory to Britain and European nations weakened the Qing Dynasty while harboring deep resentment upon both the gwailou or foreigners as well as the weak and subservient leadership. The twentieth century which saw the Philippines proclaiming independence over Spain only to be fooled by the new American colonialists also saw the birth of a revolutionary China. First by the nationalists under Dr. Sun Yat Sen, till now revered in the pantheon of Chinese revolutionary heroes, and later, the Communist takeover. But this was not the epoch Napoleon must have dreamed of. Instead, upon the death of Mao-Zedong, Chinas Politburo decided upon a tectonic shift in the nature of power. From political power, the focus became economic power, led by Deng Xiaoping. And in an amazing generation and a half, China has become the worlds second biggest economy, dislodging its enemy to the east, Japan, and is predicted to be the worlds largest in another 20 years or sooner. China has awakened, and the rest of the world, particularly the West, has begun to tremble. Historians record an era called Pax Brittanica, after England defeated the Spanish armada and colonized most of the world where in boast they presided over an empire where the sun never sets. After a century, their former colony, the United States of America whose size and resources dwarfed England and upon which the brightest minds of Europe and the rest of the world immigrated to build a nation, became the 20th centurys largest political, military and economic power, ushering in what is now known as Pax Americana. But as the 20th century ended, and after the British handed over leased Hong Kong and the New Territories back to China soon after Portugal surrendered Macau, the sleeping nation flexed its muscles so quickly that before anyone realized, it has awakened.Right from the start of his amazing presidential victory, Rodrigo Roa Duterte, for an entire generation Davao Citys undisputed leader, defined Philippine foreign policy as one of true independence, as, in the description of his former foreign secretary, Alan Peter Cayetano, friend to all and enemy to none. But in so doing, Duterte opened up to our neighbor to the west, China, whose friendship he embraced like a long-lost cousin, to the chagrin of most America-focused Filipinos. Meanwhile, he excoriated the long-held alliesAmerica, Europe, Canada and Australia and even the United Nationsleadership for condemning his war on drugs as an affront to human rights, labeling their intervention as an intrusion into sovereignty. Today, America under Donald Trump is acting like a racist, ultra-nationalistic, some say even jingoistic brat even against its neighbors and long-time allies, Canada and Mexico. And Europe is reeling under the combined onslaught of unwanted mass migration from its strife-torn former colonies in the Middle East, the decline of its united economy, and the divorce from the United Kingdom known as Brexit. With a full and hard divorce, Brexit would not only ruin Britains economy, but tout lEurope as well. While here in Asia, where more than four-billion people live, member-countries and their economies are beginning to assert themselves in the geopolitics and the economy of the world. Southeast Asia with its 600-million market, China, Japan and Korea with a combined two-billion people, India and the rest of the South Asian sub-continent with more than a billion and a half altogether comprise 60 percent of the worlds population. In our lifetime, in this age, this 60 percent, once considered by the imperialist nations as their hewers of wood and drawers of water has become the axis upon which the world economy revolves. From Pax Britannica in the 19th century, to Pax Americana in the 20th, to an indisputable Pax Asiatica in the 21st and beyond. Was Duterte prescient when he made his apertura Sinica, highlighted by the recent visit of Xi Jinping after 13 years, six of which were a clear cold war between the Philippines and China under Benigno S. Aquino III? Prescience or not, the inevitable has dawned upon us. But what all Asians must strive for, in the days when colonialism has lost its favor and flavor, is to ensure that what we Orientals can collectively achieve in the coming decades and past this century is a Pax Asiatica among self-respecting economies and sovereign countries rather than one dominated solely by a Pax Sinica. China for its part must likewise work towards that Pax Asiatica without thinking of itself as an overlord, forgetting past enmities and historic humiliation, and usher in a peace and a shared prosperity that would last centuries.THE President last week seemed almost resentful as he played down the recognition given by TIME magazine to Maria Ressa, the founder of Rappler, an online news site that has been critical of his administration. The international news magazine had honored Ressa last week, along with slain Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, jailed Burmese journalists Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo of Reuters and the Capital Gazette in Maryland as guardians of the truth by naming them Person of the Year. In a mix of Filipino and English, Duterte alluded to Ressa by saying a time of  a time of the  woman of the century and all. You can have it all.

But whether the President likes it or not, the award given to the Rappler executive was a public relations black eyeand one that could have been easily avoided by tolerance and self-restraint. Sadly, these qualities were not in play when the administration used its regulatory bodies to go after Rappler. First, the Securities and Exchange Commission sought to revoke Rapplers license to operate in January over questions about its foreign ownership. The move was immediately denounced as an attack on free speech by journalists, human rights groups and lawmakers and challenged in court. When this obvious ploy to silence a critical news outlet failed, the Bureau of Internal Revenue filed a tax evasion case against Rappler Holdings, Ressa and the companys treasurer, James Bitanga in March, for allegedly attempting to evade tax payments and failing to provide accurate information on its income tax and value-added tax returns for 2015.The President has also barred Ressa and Rapplers Palace reporter from entering the Malacanang complex. The Palace has disavowed any role in the lawsuits against Rappler, but this claim rings hollow amid the Presidents continuous rants against the online news outlet. Have these verbal attacks and legal action against Rappler worked to the administrations advantage? One would think not, given the high profile that the TIME Magazine Person of the Year award brings to the Philippine press situation. Whoever advised the President to go after Rappler with hammer and tongs did Mr. Duterte a huge disservice. Perhaps they did so to curry favoror they truly believed that persecuting critics is the way to go in a democracy. Or perhaps they all just had thin skins. But instead of silencing a critical voice, they have given the online news outlet a platform and a megaphone with which to fight back. Surely, this is a prime example of the law of unintended consequences at work. This consequence wasnt difficult to foresee, however. All it took was a level head to realize that it is the Office of the President that has the bully pulpit, and that the President need not look small, petty and mean to get his message across.The requested page is currently unavailable on this server.

Back to [RTHK News Homepage]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.Just few days after Morocco hosted the intergovernmental conference that adopted the Marrakech Pact, the ground-breaking UN-led global agreement on migration, the European Union has renewed its support for Moroccos migration-related policy and efforts.

The EU said in a statement that it is intensifying its support to Morocco to address irregular migration in response to increased migratory pressure along the Western Mediterranean Route, noting that shared challenges require joint solutions and partnerships, and that the EU stands by Morocco.

The additional funding adopted under the EU emergency Trust Fund for Africa will bring the overall migration-related assistance to Morocco to 148 million in 2018, the statement, made public Friday by the European commission, said, adding the funds will help step up the fight against migrant smuggling and trafficking of human beings, including through reinforced integrated border management.

The new funding is part of the EUs continuous support for Moroccos National Strategy on Migration and Asylum. It helps protect vulnerable migrants, step up the fight against migrant smuggling and trafficking of human beings, while improving Moroccan authorities capacity to manage their borders. By the end of the year, the EU will have committed 148 million to Morocco in migration-related assistance, the statement added.

Morocco will benefit from 30 million, part of the program to support border management in the Maghreb region under the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa adopted in July 2018. This amount helps Moroccan border agencies and related bodies to protect vulnerable migrants, address irregular migration, and dismantle cross-border criminal networks, the statement explained.

A newly adopted program worth 70 million will support Morocco in the fight against migrant smuggling and trafficking of human beings, including through a reinforced management of borders.

To help Morocco develop its border management system, the operational committee of the EU Emergency Trust Fund for Africa adopted another support program worth 40 million together with an additional 8 million program to further strengthen migration governance policies at regional level.

EU Commissioner for European Neighborhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, commented: Together with our Member States, the EU is stepping up its support to Morocco, a key partner for the European Union. The EU and Morocco need to tackle the current challenges together; together we can fight smugglers, save lives, and support people in need.

But, he added, our cooperation goes far beyond migration: we are working to strengthen our partnership via socio-economic development, decentralization and integration of the youth  to the benefit of the people in Morocco and in Europe.

Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos on his part said:Morocco is under particular migratory pressure with flows along the Western Mediterranean increasing. This is why we are intensifying and deepening our partnership with Morocco and increasing our financial support.

He said this funding will help to strengthen border management and the fight against smugglers together but also to improve the protection of migrants and to help prevent irregular departures by supporting economic development in the region. Shared challenges require joint solutions and partnerships, and the EU stands by Morocco.

As part of the Brussels-Rabat strategic collaboration on a host of issues, the EU has also boosted its support for inclusive development through the recent adoption of a 182 million package.

Out of this amount, 50 million are earmarked for supporting Moroccos advanced regionalization process and the national strategy for the development of rural/mountain areas, while youth integration projects get 35 million.

The EU is also helping with 62 million Moroccos efforts to improve good governance and public finance management, the efficiency, effectiveness and quality of the public administration through modern public finance management tools and capacity building of its personnel.

Out of this package, 30 million go to supporting private sector, green investment and micro, small and medium-sized enterprises development, to create new opportunities for job creation and sustainable development, while 5 million are earmarked for complementary activities to strengthen civil society and rule of law.A coal miner works at a Wellmore mine in Buchanan County, Virginia, in 2016. Photo: Benjamin Lowy/Getty Images

In 15 days, the coal industry will receive a late Christmas gift. The federal government is scheduled to reduce an excise tax on coal production by 55 percent on December 31, a move that industry representatives welcome. But what is good for the coal industry is often bad for coal miners themselves. If the tax cut takes effect as planned, the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund will lose a significant source of its funding. Currently, the government levies a tax of $1.10 per ton of coal produced. That tax goes into the fund, which defrays the significant costs associated with black lung disease. Unless Congress takes action this month, the tax will revert to its 1977 rate of 50 cents per ton.

The fund wont die immediately without this money, but it will gradually wither. The Government Accountability Office reported in June that if the tax cut proceeds, the fund will need a bailout worth billions of dollars if its to continue subsidizing care for black lung patients. With the scheduled 2019 tax rate decrease, our moderate case simulation suggests that expected revenue will likely be insufficient to cover combined black lung benefit payments and administrative costs, as well as debt repayment expenditures, the GAO explained. Bruce Watzman, head of regulatory affairs for the National Mining Association, countered at the time that the fund had been abused anyway. More often than not, we are being called upon to provide compensation for previous or current smokers, he said.

In fact, rates of black lung are on the rise  though the industry steadfastly denies this. The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) reported in July that as many as one in five miners in central Appalachia suffer from black lung, the highest rate in 25 years. Nationwide, the condition now afflicts one in ten miners, an increase of 3 percent since 2012.

This is new data, but it appears black lung cases have been increasing for years, despite the introduction of regulations intended to reduce the conditions prevalence. In 2012, a joint investigation by NPR and the Center for Public Integrity found widespread and persistent gaming of the system designed to measure and control exposure. According to NPR and CPI, cases initially ticked upward in the 1990s, mostly in eastern Kentucky, southern West Virginia, and southwestern Virginia. Sometimes coal operators commit outright fraud, by sampling air outside their own mines. Sometimes they simply fail to meet certain safety standards (this is why Don Blankenship spent spent a year in prison after 29 miners died in an explosion in his Massey Energy mine). In other cases, operators exploit perfectly legal loopholes. The law permits sampling at only 50 percent of average production, when miners have as little as half the exposure, Howard Berkes reported for NPR, adding, Sampling is required only eight hours a day even though miners work at least 10 hours a day on average. That amounts to about 600 hours of exposure a year that is not measured in the sampling.

Thus, black lung, and more of it. But though its miners are getting sicker, the coal industry does not appear to feel much responsibility for their health needs. Earlier this year, Kentuckys Republican-led legislature passed House Bill-2 (HB-2), which curtails workers compensation, including black lung benefits, to 15 years, the Guardians Elyssa East reported. HB-2 also severely restricted the number of pulmonogists the state authorizes to diagnose black lung and approve patients for benefits; there are now only four doctors permitted to do so, and three of the four also consult for the coal industry. East reported HB-2 also looks like an act of political retaliation against one radiologist, Brandon Crum, who initially reported an increase in black lung cases coming through his eastern Kentucky practice. The coal industry disputes many of these diagnoses, claiming instead that they are caused by sarcoidosis or by complications from smoking. Most miners in central Appalachia, however, are white, and sarcoidosis is rare among white men.

There is only one way to contract black lung, NIOSH says, and that is to breathe in coal dust. Once you breathe in that dust, it is part of you. Breathe it daily, for years, and it begins to change you. The healthy tissue of your lungs will scar, and you will find it more and more difficult to breathe, until one day you cant. East described the process with particular clarity: Continued exposure to dust will grow into scar tissue or fibrosis culminating in the complicated form of the disease. In time, the scars will become as big as a grain of rice. A dime. A quarter. A half dollar. Lung capacity declines. Hypoxemia (low blood oxygen levels) sets in. Black lung is terminal, and it is a slow murderer. The Black Lung Disability Trust Fund doesnt cure anyone because no cure exists, but it does provide oxygen tanks and help pay for lung transplants that can extend a miners lifespan. It relieves some financial pressure and preserves some quality of life.

Earlier this month, retired Appalachian miners traveled to Washington to beg Congress to keep the excise tax at its current levels. They appealed, specifically, to Senator Mitch McConnell, who represents many of them in Congress. They stood in the United States Capitol and told their stories to McConnells staff: how they dedicated their lives to coal mining, struggled to keep their jobs during the boom-and-bust cycles, and what its like to die from a disease that is entirely preventable, wrote Lindsey Gilpin for Southerly magazine.

In October, McConnell suggested he would find a way to preserve funding for the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. Thatll be taken care of before we get into an expiration situation, McConnell said. It just wont be allowed to be unfunded.

But now McConnell appears to be walking back that statement, according to the ReSource. The majority leader did not answer detailed questions about how he plans to resolve the issue in the coming days. Instead, McConnell said in a written statement, It is a top priority of mine to maintain and protect benefits for those suffering from black lung disease.

Despite McConnell and other coal country lawmakers stated commitment to protecting coal miners, the truth is there probably wont be dire political consequences if they let the coal tax rate expire. Republicans will still control the Senate, and everyone knows President Trump loves coal  or beautiful, clean coal, as he called it. Thats music to the coal industry, which still grips not just the economic fortunes of struggling regions like Appalachia, but the hearts and minds of many coalfield voters, too. Coal jobs are still jobs.

Starving the nations black lung fund wont make coal deadlier, but it could shorten life spans and make deaths less dignified and more painful. Neglect is slower than a gunshot, but it will kill you all the same.Our company is looking for sunflower husk pellets supplier, able to make a delivery to Finland, Kaustinen 69600. We need 2-5 full load trucks monthly. Let us know the price for pellets with delivery.The map recently appeared in a presentation at the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) in June, and again in a presentation by mission engineers at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Germany last month.

As this is Chinas first independent interplanetary mission, teams will need to succeed on a range of technological challenges including orbital insertion and landing. The country recently made progress on that front with successful supersonic parachute tests and tests of a subsurface detection radar from a hot air balloon in October (link in Chinese).

Chinese media reports from early September said Tianying-6 sounding rockets were launched in western China to send a full-scale supersonic parachute to altitudes between 44 and 54 kilometers, simulating travel through the tenuous Martian atmosphere. The reports state the parachute opened successfully, providing valuable aerodynamic data and verifying subsystems. Similar tests were carried out by NASA on 7 September 2018 from Wallops Island, Virginia, for its own 2020 rover mission.

First Mars EDL attempt

According to a paper by a team from the China Academy of Space Technology (CAST) presented at the Global Space Exploration Conference in Beijing in 2017, landing site selection has been a complex process in which flight system engineering constraints are balanced against science goals while still allowing the project's science objectives to be met.

The two demarcated areas are in relatively low-lying regions which offer advantages to first-time Mars entry, descent and landing (EDL) attempts, says Mason Peck, an associate professor at Cornell University and former NASA chief technologist.

The atmosphere of Mars is really inconvenient. Its too thick to ignoreso, aerothermal heating is importantbut too rarefied to offer an easy descent by parachute. So, the lower the elevation, the more atmosphere the spacecraft encounters on its way to the surface, and, therefore, it can decelerate more easily, Peck says. If one is unsure of ones decelerator technology, this is the best-odds approach.

The landing will involve the use of blunt body aerodynamics, deployment of a supersonic parachute and powered descent to safely set the rover down on Mars. Part of the team that developed the Change-3 lunar lander and rover, which successfully soft-landed on the Moons Mare Imbrium region in late 2013, is working on the mission, though Mars presents different and greater challenges: notably remoteness, more gravity, the presence of a thin atmosphere and less solar energy reaching the planet.

Its all very hard, says Peck. The smallest errors in orbit maneuvers or failure to correctly model the atmosphere can have catastrophic consequences. To date, about half of Mars missions have failed, although NASA has a very good track record.

The EDL sequence carries a lot of risk. Many technologies have to perform perfectly, for the first time: the aeroshell/heat shield, the aerodynamic decelerator (or parachute(s)), position and velocity measurement relative to the ground, and the landing subsystem, Peck says. Getting any one of these right is a remarkable technical achievement. Getting these all right is whats necessary to land on Mars.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Welcome Guest! You Are Here:If you are currently a print subscriber but don't have an online account, select this option. You will need to use your 7 digit subscriber account number (with leading zeros) and your last name (in UPPERCASE).In a joint statement issued at their fifth conference of border provinces courts which took place in Phnom Penh, Cambodian on December 14-15, they were unanimous that in the context of more complicated and unpredictable global developments such as terrorism and territorial disputes, cooperation among the three supreme courts and courts in the border localities has had an increasing role in maintaining regional security and stability.Since the ASEAN Economic Community was set up, trade and investment among the three countries have been thriving. However, it has triggered several formidable challenges, including rising level of complexity and severity in criminal cases, and international trade conflicts.Thus, it needs strong bonds among the three judicial bodies and the establishment of a coordinating board to address criminal cases, cross-border disputes in civil affairs and trade will have positive impact on the global integration process in each country.The three supreme courts reached consensus on strategies and multilateral cooperation mechanisms. Accordingly, they will enhance experience exchange in trial of civil and criminal cases, as well as collaboration in the fight against trafficking of drugs, human and wildlife animals.They reiterated that the collaboration will help promote traditional friendship, which is deemed as a key to stability and development of each nation.Before attending the conference, Chief Justice of the Supreme Peoples Court of Vietnam Nguyen Hoa Binh had a meeting with Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Cambodia Dith Munty.The first and fourth conferences were held in Vietnam, while the second and the fifth were held in Cambodia, and the third in Laos.The sixth edition of its kind is due to take place in Laos.

VNAIn the first 11 months of this year, it was estimated at 3.16 million Korean visitors to Vietnam, up 46.5 percent compared to the same period last year, becoming 2nd largest market behind China; 427,000 Vietnamese visitors to Korea, up 42.1 percent compared to last year.



According to the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism, around 2.41 million South Korean visitors arrived in Vietnam in 2017.

Additionally, the South Korean government has launched a new visa policy to Vietnamese in major cities. Vietnamese passport holders who reside in Hanoi, Danang and HCMC can apply for five-year South Korean visas and stay for up to 30 days per trip.

The Korean government aslo issued ten-year visas to Vietnamese professionals like doctors, nurses,lawyers, professors, people with Masters degrees or above earned abroad and graduates who enrolled in four-year-plus programs in South Korean universities. The new visa policy allows people to extend their stay in South Korea for 90 days and takes effect on December 3.

With the new visa policy, South Korea hopes to increase business and investment cooperation and attract more travelers from Vietnam.

This year, KTO in Vietnam has also implemented many tourism promotional programs, introducing to Vietnamese visitors 95 tourist products, such as visiting film studios of well-known Korean movies, traditional markets, high end resorts and favorite tourist attractions

South Korea expects to attract more than 450,000 Vietnamese visitors this year , up 40 percent year-on-year, turning Vietnam to become the 7th country with the largest number of tourists to Korea.

There were more than 60,000 MICE (meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions) tourist arrivals travelling from Vietnam to Korea, up 7.3 percent against the same period last year. Vietnam is ranked first among 32 markets in Korea in MICE tourism, with 235 groups and a group of over 100 persons.



South Korean visitors in Hoi An South Korean visitors in Hoi An

Gyeongbokgung is the main royal palace of the Five Grand Palaces built during the Joseon Dynasty in 1935.

2018 Korea Travel Award ceremony honoring Vietnamese travel companies is held in Hanoi and HCMC .

By HA ANH - Translated by Kim Khanh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.



Yonkers Raceway put its 2018 meet to bed Sunday afternoon (Dec. 16) with a card that saw DWs NY Yank (George Brennan, $13.80) win the tracks featured  and sloppy  $44,000 Open Handicap Trot.

The weeks marquee was contested at the flat-mile distance, one race before the seven added-distance French races.

From Post 4, the eventual winner went down the road (:28.1, :58, 1:27, 1:56.3). Along the way, another leaver, Mostinterestingman (who was driven by Austin Siegelman) jumped it off; the outside-assigned NF Happenstance (Jack Parker Jr.) was wide early and out the mile, and 6-5 favourite Smalltownthrowdown (Dan Dube) left the cones and retreated soon thereafter.

Down the backside, Weslynn Dancer (Matt Kakaley) made a looming move, but couldnt sustain it. She did, however, photo a pocketed Andy Ray (Jason Bartlett) for second as DWs NY Yank finished it off by a length and a half.

NF Happenstance and Royal Bachelor (Jim Marohn Jr.) picked off the remainders.



DWs New York Yank, pictured victorious at Yonkers Raceway on Sunday, December 16, 2018

For fourth choice DWs NY Yank  a nine-year-old Dilbert Hanover gelding co-owned (as Burke Racing) by (trainer) Ron Burke and Weaver Bruscemi  it was his seventh win from 26 seasonal starts. The exacta paid $97.50, the triple returned $281, and the superfecta paid $1,192.

Sundays final foray incarnation of the New York, New York Double featured a winning combination of 1-Hattie L (Aqueducts first race) and 3-Dynamic Edge (Yonkers fourth race), which returned $41.25 for every correct $1 ticket. The total pool was $4,058.

The Raceways 2019 season is set to begin on the evening of Monday, January 7, pending approval of the New York State Gaming Commission. There are no Sunday matinees scheduled. During the hiatus, afternoon simulcasting is available more often than not. Please visit empirecitycasino.com for a current schedule.

(Yonkers Raceway)Looking for the vulture assist with Neolithic burials

1 year agoABCNews.com(WOODLAND PARK, Colo.) -- Authorities completed digging on the Colorado property owned by Kelsey Berreth's fiance Sunday, the second day police searched for evidence of the missing mom at the home.



The Woodland Park Police Department did not say whether anything was found on Patrick Frazee's property but confirmed that Berreth, who was last seen on Thanksgiving Day, has still not been located.



On Saturday, police announced that an anonymous donor is offering $25,000 for information leading to the safe return of the new mom. She was last seen on surveillance video at a Safeway grocery store on Nov. 22 with her 1-year-old daughter. Frazee, told police he later saw Berreth to pick up their daughter.



Berreth, 29, was reported missing on Dec. 2 by her mother, Cheryl.



Woodland Park police served Frazee with a search warrant on Friday to begin investigating his 35-acre property in the rural town of Florissant, Colorado, about 35 miles northwest of Colorado Springs.



Frazee and Berreth do not live together.



While Frazee has not spoken to the media, he says he continues to cooperate with investigators. He has not been named a suspect or person of interest.



"Patrick Frazee continues to cooperate with law enforcement in the missing person investigation of Kelsey Berreth," Frazee's attorney, Jeremy Loew, said in a statement Friday. "We understand that a search warrant was executed on Mr. Frazees property. Mr. Frazee was never asked to voluntarily participate in this search. We encourage law enforcement to take whatever steps it deems necessary to find Kelsey Berreth and to be able to exclude Patrick Frazee as a possible suspect in this missing person investigation."



A neighbor of Frazee sent ABC News photos of authorities bringing in an excavator to begin digging on the property at about 3 p.m. on Saturday. Authorities completed their search of the property late Saturday, according to Colorado Springs ABC affiliate KRDO-TV.



It is not clear whether they found anything at the home.



The search warrant is sealed and authorities would not disclose what led them to investigate Frazee's home and land in the first place.



Woodland Park Police Chief Miles De Young said Friday that they still want to sit down with Frazee for an interview, but had yet to do so.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.A group of diverse but like-minded individuals, the members of ARC have come together in their common desire to fight hatred, bigotry, intolerance and violence because of the harm these antisocial behaviors cause to our society. In that effort, we will not use or sanction the use of illegal actions (such as violence or intimidation) in pursuit of our desired aims and if we learn of anyone who does use these unethical methods we will report those individuals to the authorities. Instead, we will use the guarantees found in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms that ensure freedom of legal speech and expression.by Melani Manel Perera

The returning prime minister is getting ready for tomorrows swearing-in ceremony. The political crisis was triggered by the UNP leaders removal and the appointment of the former strongman. The Supreme Court ruled against President Sirisenas illegal decision to dissolve parliament and call for fresh elections.

Colombo (AsiaNews)  Mahinda Rajapaksa (pictured) has resigned as prime minister of Sri Lanka this morning, following a ceremony at his Colombo's home.

His controversial appointment by President Maithripala Sirisena after the latter sacked Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had plunged Asias oldest democracy into a deep political crisis for the past two months.

According to the United National Party (UNP), Wickremesinghe will take the oath of office as prime minister tomorrow at 10 am, taking back the post he held until two months ago. If this happens, Sirisena has already indicated that he intends to resign.

Two days ago, the Supreme Court ruled that the president had acted illegally when he dissolved parliament in November and called an election two years before it was due. A seven-judge bench unanimously agreed that the president had violated the Sri Lanka Constitution.

Urged by lawmakers, various political movements and civil society organisations, a three-member Supreme Court Bench cancelled the presidential decree on 13 November.

During the crisis, Wickremesinghe maintained that he was the legitimate prime minister. The political deadlock resulted in scuffles in parliament and sparked large protests.

For her part, the Catholic Church called for a resolution to the conflict in accordance with the Constitution.

In a statement, the Catholic Bishops Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL) said that politicians should not focus on staying in power or getting into power, but serve the people and the development of the country.Women are released after agreeing to keep their children. Although renting wombs has been illegal since 2016, Cambodia remains a popular destination. There is a close relationship between girl schooling and surrogacy abuse, says Fr Alberto Caccaro.

Phnom Penh (AsiaNews)  Thirty-two Cambodian women are out on bail after they accepted to keep and raise the children they had agreed to bear for Chinese customers. Police had arrested them following a crackdown against surrogate motherhood.

If they fail to uphold the condition, they will get at least 15 years in prison, noted Pon Samkhan, general secretary for the National Committee for Counter-Trafficking. The last group of 17 was freed on 5 December.

"It is appropriate that these women were released because I think that surrogate mothers should not be the target, said Fr Alberto Caccaro, a priest at the Pontifical Institute for Foreign Missions (PIME), speaking to AsiaNews.

Traffickers  brokers, agencies, corrupt officials and the Internet  should be the targets, added the missionary, who worked in Cambodia from 2001 to 2011, and then again since 2016.

"In 2001-2002, when I had just arrived in Cambodia, as I travelled around the country and met other priests, I found that a barren woman could easily find a large family, willing to give her a baby.

I remember that at the time the fee could be as little as 50 US dollars. However, the context was not that of buying and selling. Paradoxically, at the time it was almost out of sympathy."

For Fr Caccaro, the business of renting wombs is helped by the problem of school dropout, which is widespread among Cambodian girls. "It would be interesting to find out what education these women got, said the clergyman.

Often, girls drop out of school too early, especially in rural areas. When the most fragile young people stop going to school, they wait to be married or end up being exploited by trafficking networks.

"There is a close relationship between girl schooling and surrogacy abuse. For this reason, we missionaries pay close attention to womens education, so that they can protect themselves against exploitation.

"A few weeks ago, I heard about a young woman who went to China to get married. The family got about three thousand dollars. Such low fees make deals easier. People need cash urgently in a country blinded by the mirage of modernity. Despite laws, measures and policies, Cambodia remains vulnerable."

Commercial surrogate motherhood has been illegal since 2016. However, Cambodia remains a popular destination for barren couples who want children. In 2017, an Australian nurse and two Cambodians were arrested for running an illegal surrogacy clinic.

In its latest raids, Cambodian police arrested 11 pregnant women and four go-betweens last month.Underage marriage will now require the authorisation of an Islamic court, parental approval or the opinion of a subcommittee. Muslims represent 4 per cent of Thailands population, but 24 per cent in southern provinces where poor girls are often given away in marriage after their first period. Activists accuse imams of making money from the practice.

Bangkok (AsiaNews/Agencies)  The Central Islamic Council of Thailand (CICOT) has, for the first time, issued a nationwide ban on child marriage. Under the new regulation, children under the age of 17 cannot marry, except in special circumstances.

The decision follows public outrage sparked by the marriage this year of an 11-year-old Thai girl and a 41-year-old Malaysian man.

About 94.6 per cent of Thailands population is Buddhist. Muslims represent just over 4 per cent. The marriage in question took place in southern Thailand, home to more than two million Malay Muslims (about 24 per cent of local population).

The story went viral on social media following reports that the groom's other wife filed a complaint with the Malaysian police. The marriage is not recognised under civil law but was celebrated by the Islamic Council of Narathiwat province.

Yesterday, during Friday prayers, Islamic religious authorities announced the new rules to the faithful in all of the countrys mosques. CICOT chairman Aziz Phitakkumpon approved the changes in late November.

The new regulation means that local mosques cannot authorise marriages involving anyone aged under 17 unless an Islamic court gives permission or the parents sign a document approving the marriage at the provincial Islamic committee office or at the local police station

A special sub-committee will also be set up to consider marriages involving children under 17, and give the green light if the marriage benefits both spouses.

One of the three committee members must be a woman with knowledge of Islamic laws and she must be in charge of questioning and interviewing the girl.

Child marriage is widespread in Thailands predominantly Muslim southern provinces. Here, girls from poor families are married in local mosques after their first period.

In the provinces of Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat and Satun, Islamic law was applied instead of the Civil Code in family matters and inheritance. Unlike national laws, Islamic law does not specify a minimum age for marriage.

The loophole has allowed men from Muslim majority Malaysia to take much younger girls from Thailand as their wives, and local imams have benefited monetarily from the loopholes, activists say.

For National Human Rights Commissioner Angkhana Neelapaijit, who is a Muslim, the CICOTs move was not enough. Without penalties for violators, the regulation is more like "asking for cooperation.In order to maintain this blog I have to pay for its upkeep including a hosting company, support services, virus and other malicious hackers. If you appreciate what I write please make a donation.Shawn Thew/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will leave his administration post at the end of the year, President Donald Trump announced early Saturday.



Zinke submitted his resignation to the White House Saturday, an administration source told ABC News.



The president, who made the sudden staffing announcement on Twitter, thanked Zinke for his service over the last two years.



"@RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years," the president tweeted. "Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation."



Zinke's replacement will be named next week, the president said.





Secretary of the Interior @RyanZinke will be leaving the Administration at the end of the year after having served for a period of almost two years. Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation.......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2018

.......The Trump Administration will be announcing the new Secretary of the Interior next week.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 15, 2018

The White House did not immediately respond to an ABC News request for comment about what prompted the sudden announcement of Zinkes departure. The announcement came just a day after the president announced that his budget director, Mick Mulvaney, will step into the role of chief of staff on an acting basis in the new year when Chief of Staff John Kelly will depart.



Zinke has faced multiple inquiries by his department's inspector general and congressional investigators since he took office, including into his travel and whether he was improperly involved in a real estate development in his hometown. At least one of the investigations into Zinke's conduct was referred to Department of Justice, though it was unclear whether the department intended to act on the referral.



Zinke has maintained that he will be cleared in the investigations and has followed all department ethical rules.



In a statement Saturday, Zinke referenced inquiries into his conduct as one reason for his departure.



"I love working for the President and am incredibly proud of all the good work weve accomplished together," he said. "However, after 30 years of public service, I cannot justify spending thousands of dollars defending myself and my family against false allegations."





In a statement, Grijalva said he hopes Zinke's replacement will be more amenable to working with the committee.

"This is no kind of victory, but Im hopeful that it is a genuine turning of the page," he said in the statement. "Secretary Zinkes successor has a chance to move on from on an unfortunate Trump administration record of environmental mismanagement and decline. A well-managed Interior Department  one that puts the public good ahead of fossil fuel and mining industry demands  can be a boon to the entire country."

Sources tell ABC News Zinke had been asked to leave the administration by the end of the year, as it had been expected that he would come under greater scrutiny under the incoming Democratic-controlled Congress.



In November, Zinke publicly attacked top House Democrat Rep. Raul Grijalva after he called for Zinke's resignation and promised intense oversight of Interior in the new Congress in January.

In a tweet, Zinke accused Grijalva of drunken and hostile behavior, in an apparent reference to the lawmaker's battle with alcohol addiction in the 1980s.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.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| BY Ricki Green |

By Doris Li (left), general manager, Bastion China

Chinese New Year is the most important Chinese festival that is celebrated each year at the turn of the traditional lunar calendar. Chinese New Year typically falls between 21 January and 20 February, and celebrations will last 15 days. The key dates for 2019 are just around the corner, with New Years Eve on 4th February, New Years Day on 5th February and the Lantern Festival on 19th February.

Chinese New Year (CNY) is marked by visits to family and friends, special meals, fireworks, and gift giving, making it a great way to showcase your China credentials to your clients or consumers.

CNY celebrations usually begin on Chinese New Years Eve as the New Years Eve dinner is the most important dinner for the Chinese, reuniting family members who live away from home.

Chinese social media networks, Weibo and WeChat, often become flooded with commentary by the younger generations.

There are 1.2 million people with Chinese ancestry living in Australia and over 180,000 Chinese students studying here. And theres the 1.4 million Chinese tourists who will visit our shores in 2018 according to Tourism Australia and spend an average of $8,000 AUD compared to an average of $5,000 by international visitors.

So what can Australian marketers do to take advantage of CNY?

When talking about your CNY plan, a common mistake businesses make is that they only look at the first three days of CNY.

There are different periods that businesses need to consider for their campaign. It should start from November/December, when the international students have finished their exams and are planning to go back to China for the semester break and CNY. This is the time students are looking for products to purchase and take back to China.

The good thing for most brands is that its usually the time for Christmas and holiday season sales, so they dont necessarily need to create new campaigns for the Chinese students, but they need to choose the right channels to reach students and add a CNY gifting angle to the communications.

The CNY period is the peak period for Chinese tourists to travel to Australia thus a good opportunity to reach inbound tourists. Shopping is a big part for Chinese tourists and they usually do their research before departure, so it is always beneficial to pre-target them when theyre still in China planning theyre holiday (which of course requires a big marketing budget).

Alternative solutions for a smaller budget including securing some presence at the airport, make an impression on store windows, or communicate to Australia based Chinese who could spread the word to their friends and families that are visiting during this period.

We suggest brands run their CNY sales and offers for two weeks, instead of just three days. Chinese usually take two weeks to travel to Australia and they usually leave shopping to the last couple of days as no one would like to carry too many products around. This was the advice we gave to UGG this year and according to the client, sales during their CNY campaign increased by 50%.An accident in a mine in southwest China's Chongqing municipality has killed seven miners, and injured three others, local authorities said Saturday.



Rescue workers search for the trapped miners in Fengchun coal mine in southwest China's Chongqing municipality on Saturday, December 15, 2018. [Photo: Xinhua]

The accident happened at about 6:07 p.m. when the connecting device of a skip broke apart, causing the skip to slide down the inclined shaft. Seven miners working in the shaft were killed.

The three injured miners, including one seriously injured, have been rushed to a hospital.

Investigation is underway.In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!(CNN)  China said Friday it will temporarily reduce tariffs on imports of American-made cars as it tries to negotiate a trade deal with the United States.

Citing the meeting earlier this month between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, the Chinese Finance Ministry said in a statement that it will remove the additional 25% tariffs on car imports from the United States for three months starting January 1. That will bring China's tariffs on American-made cars to 15%, in line with those for cars made in other countries.

China also said it would suspend its 5% tariff on 67 other auto parts.

China imposed the additional tariffs on U.S. cars in July and on some auto parts in September as part of its retaliation in the trade war between the two countries.

At their meeting in Argentina, Trump and Xi agreed to a temporary truce while they try to negotiate a broad trade deal over the next 90 days.

In its statement Friday, the Finance Ministry described the decision to remove the tariffs as a "concrete action" aimed at helping to bring about a "mutually beneficial new Sino-U.S. trade order."

Xi pledged in April that China would cut tariffs on imported cars this year. His government delivered on that promise in July, reducing import taxes from 25% to 15%.

But just days later, China imposed new additional tariffs of 25% on American-made passenger vehicles as the trade war with the United States escalated.

The tariffs hurt profits of major automakers that ship cars to China from the United States. Germany's BMW and Daimler, the owner of Mercedes-Benz, have been hit particularly hard. Shares of BMW (BMWYY) and Daimler (DDAIF) both trimmed early Friday losses on the news.

The stocks had spiked last week after Trump tweeted that China was going to cut auto tariffs.

General Motors (GM) and some other automakers already have a large presence in China through partnerships with local manufacturers. It has become the largest and most important market for the American auto industry. Because their plants are in the country, they weren't subject to big import taxes.

Yet China's tariffs have hurt exports from U.S. auto plants. The value of US passenger car exports to China has fallen by $2.4 billion, or 30%, over the course of the first nine months of the year.

Part of that could be because of slowing Chinese auto sales. Yet overall sales of American cars in China - including those made in China  are down only about 1% so far this year.

In a statement on Friday, Ford said it was "very encouraged by China's announcement." "We applaud both governments for working together constructively to reduce trade barriers and open markets."

This story was first published on CNN.com, "China is temporarily slashing tariffs on US auto imports."ABC News(NEW YORK) -- Just days after a federal judge in Texas ruled that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, the Senate minority whip said Sunday the ruling is bad news for Republicans in Congress.



"It once again puts Republicans in Washington on the spot," Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Illinois, told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on This Week Sunday. "If you're going to take away the Affordable Care Act, how will you protect the millions of people currently using it for health insurance for their family?"



Judge Reed O'Connor, appointed to the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas in 2007 by former President George W. Bush, ruled that the individual mandate is illegal and therefore the entire law is unconstitutional. He did not issue an injunction, however, and the law remains in place pending appeal.



President Donald Trump tweeted twice late Friday that the ruling, which throws the health care of millions covered under the law into flux, is "Great news for America!" and said that Mitch and Nancy need to "get it done," suggesting that Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell and incoming House speaker Nancy Pelosi pass new health care legislation.



Former President Barack Obama posted messages on social media encouraging Americans to enroll by Sunday's open enrollment deadline, despite the ruling.



"You might have heard about a federal court decision on a Republican lawsuit trying to strike down the Affordable Care Act in its entirety," Obama wrote on Facebook and then shared on Twitter. "That can be a scary thing to hear, particularly if you or someone you care about has a pre-existing condition. And thats why its so important for you to know that last nights ruling changes nothing for now. As this decision makes its way through the courts, which will take months, if not years, the law remains in place and will likely stay that way."



Durbin said that Democrats would be "happy" to sit down and talk about new health care legislation, but that "you have to look at the history," which is that the "president for two years has done everything in his power to put an end to the protections included."



Republicans in Congress are already facing a precarious political fight over government funding, which will expire on Dec. 21. Trump said last week that he would be "proud" to shut down the government over border wall funding.



Durbin said that the shutdown is "entirely in the hands of President Donald Trump, who bragged last week that this was his decision."



He added that Congress should be looking at other border issues and that a wall would do "virtually nothing" to stem drug trafficking, namely the influx of fentanyl. Durbin cited a Centers for Disease Control report released on Wednesday that said fentanyl has become the drug most associated with overdoses in the U.S.



"We could be scanning vehicles coming into the United States to see if they contain contraband, narcotics, firearms, even victims of human trafficking," he said.



He also said Democrats are trying to give the Department of Homeland Security what they need, including putting $1.3 billion on the table for "barriers," though he noted that the "barriers" are defined in such a way "so we arent building some medieval wall."



The Trump administration has asked for $5 billion in funding to construct a border wall, and Trump has continued threats to close the government just as investigations into his associates heated up.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.(CNN)  Crowds of "gilets jaunes" or "yellow vest" protesters gathered Saturday in Paris for a fifth consecutive weekend of demonstrations despite concessions this week by French President Emmanuel Macron.

But their numbers were lower than in previous weeks, with some perhaps appeased by Macron's promises, while others may have been deterred by cold, wet weather or shaken by the terror attack earlier this week on a Christmas market in Strasbourg.

By midafternoon Saturday, about 34,000 protesters had turned out across France, including more than 2,000 in Paris, according to the Interior Ministry. Last week, some 77,000 protesters turned out across the country, including 10,000 in Paris.

Paris police estimates earlier Saturday put the number of protesters in the capital at several thousand.

Some 69,000 police officers were deployed across the country in anticipation of the protests, including 8,000 in Paris, the Interior Ministry said.

Police used tear gas on the Champs-Elysees in confrontations with protesters. Some were seen throwing rocks at security forces.

More than 100 people were in police custody for questioning early Saturday, Paris police said, much fewer than last week. The protests are named after the yellow high-visibility jackets French motorists must carry in their vehicles.

Paris department stores such as the Galeries Lafayette and Printemps are open this weekend as well as the Louvre museum and Eiffel Tower. Parts of the Champs-Elysees also reopened to traffic midmorning Saturday.

Speaking to CNN French affiliate BFMTV, Maxime Nicolle, a spokesman for the "gilets jaunes," called for a citizens' referendum. "We are protesting peacefully, but Mr. President give us back our freedom and our sovereignty!" he said.

The protesters held a moment's silence at the Place de l'Opera for those who have been killed since the movement began.

Authorities in northern France confirmed that a man died Friday evening in a car accident in Erquelinnes, Belgium, following a blockade by "yellow vests" near Jeumont.

Macron promises social reforms

On December 8, many Paris tourist hot spots and stores were shuttered in anticipation of violent protests after the previous week's demonstrations resulted in the worst riots to hit the French capital in decades. By the end of last weekend, 1,723 people had been taken in for questioning and 1,220 into custody, according to the Interior Ministry. Across the country, 135 people were reported injured.

Under increasing pressure to respond, Macron may have taken some of the heat out of the protests when he pledged Monday night to increase the minimum wage and scrap new pension taxes.

In a televised address to the nation, Macron said the violent protests  which have morphed from a grassroots movement against fuel tax hikes into disparate demonstrations against his presidency  have been "unacceptable" and "will not be in any way indulged."

He proposed some social reforms, including an increase in the minimum wage by 100 euros ($113) a month beginning in January that will not cost employers extra and a promise that overtime hours will not be taxed. Macron also remained defiant and said he would not reinstate the wealth tax but would fight tax fraud.

'Profound' anger

Journalist and political commentator Agnes Poirier told CNN that the anger felt by protesters, many of them lower middle class from more rural areas, remained "profound."

But she said the measures announced by Macron  and his televised appearance during which he seemed more humble and heartfelt than before  may have swayed some people.

"We will see if the French are still supporting the movement, but also if the 'yellow vests' are ready to stop demonstrating and structure themselves," said Poirier, referring to the grassroots nature of the movement, which has no leadership and has largely been organized through social media.

"They need to structure themselves to meet with the government and go to the table to start negotiating."

The reforms are expected to cost the government between $8.1 billion and $10.1 billion, Olivier Dussopt, France's secretary of state to the Ministry of Public Action and Accounts, told BFMTV.

Macron visited the Christmas market in Strasbourg on Friday evening to express his gratitude to members of the emergency services after this week's deadly attack there. Police killed the suspected attacker Thursday evening in the city following a two-day manhunt. Four people have died following Tuesday's attack.

This story was first published on CNN.com "'Yellow vest' protesters turn out for fifth weekend in France"



1. U.S. acceptance of coexistence as the only alternative to atomic war.

2. U.S. willingness to capitulate in preference to engaging in atomic war.

3. Develop the illusion that total disarmament of the United States would be a demonstration of moral strength.

4. Permit free trade between all nations regardless of Communist affiliation and regardless of whether or not items could be used for war.

5. Extension of long-term loans to Russia and Soviet satellites.

6. Provide American aid to all nations regardless of Communist domination.

7. Grant recognition of Red China. Admission of Red China to the U.N.

8. Set up East and West Germany as separate states in spite of Khrushchev's promise in 1955 to settle the German question by free elections under supervision of the U.N.

9. Prolong the conferences to ban atomic tests because the United States has agreed to suspend tests as long as negotiations are in progress.

10. Allow all Soviet satellites individual representation in the U.N.

11. Promote the U.N. as the only hope for mankind. If its charter is rewritten, demand that it be set up as a one-world government with its own independent armed forces. (Some Communist leaders believe the world can be taken over as easily by the U.N. as by Moscow. Sometimes these two centers compete with each other as they are now doing in the Congo.)

12. Resist any attempt to outlaw the Communist Party.

13. Do away with all loyalty oaths.

14. Continue giving Russia access to the U.S. Patent Office.

15. Capture one or both of the political parties in the United States.

16. Use technical decisions of the courts to weaken basic American institutions by claiming their activities violate civil rights.

17. Get control of the schools. Use them as transmission belts for socialism and current Communist propaganda. Soften the curriculum. Get control of teachers' associations. Put the party line in textbooks.

18. Gain control of all student newspapers.

19. Use student riots to foment public protests against programs or organizations which are under Communist attack.

20. Infiltrate the press. Get control of book-review assignments, editorial writing, policymaking positions.

21. Gain control of key positions in radio, TV, and motion pictures.

22. Continue discrediting American culture by degrading all forms of artistic expression. An American Communist cell was told to "eliminate all good sculpture from parks and buildings, substitute shapeless, awkward and meaningless forms."

23. Control art critics and directors of art museums. "Our plan is to promote ugliness, repulsive, meaningless art."

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by promoting pornography and obscenity in books, magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity as "normal, natural, healthy."

27. Infiltrate the churches and replace revealed religion with "social" religion. Discredit the Bible and emphasize the need for intellectual maturity which does not need a "religious crutch."

28. Eliminate prayer or any phase of religious expression in the schools on the ground that it violates the principle of "separation of church and state."

29. Discredit the American Constitution by calling it inadequate, old-fashioned, out of step with modern needs, a hindrance to cooperation between nations on a worldwide basis.

30. Discredit the American Founding Fathers. Present them as selfish aristocrats who had no concern for the "common man."

31. Belittle all forms of American culture and discourage the teaching of American history on the ground that it was only a minor part of the "big picture." Give more emphasis to Russian history since the Communists took over.

32. Support any socialist movement to give centralized control over any part of the culture--education, social agencies, welfare programs, mental health clinics, etc.

33. Eliminate all laws or procedures which interfere with the operation of the Communist apparatus.

34. Eliminate the House Committee on Un-American Activities.

35. Discredit and eventually dismantle the FBI.

36. Infiltrate and gain control of more unions.

37. Infiltrate and gain control of big business.

38. Transfer some of the powers of arrest from the police to social agencies. Treat all behavioral problems as psychiatric disorders which no one but psychiatrists can understand.

39. Dominate the psychiatric profession and use mental health laws as a means of gaining coercive control over those who oppose Communist goals.

40. Discredit the family as an institution. Encourage promiscuity and easy divorce.

41. Emphasize the need to raise children away from the negative influence of parents. Attribute prejudices, mental blocks and retarding of children to suppressive influence of parents.

42. Create the impression that violence and insurrection are legitimate aspects of the American tradition; that students and special-interest groups should rise up and use united force to solve economic, political or social problems.

43. Overthrow all colonial governments before native populations are ready for self-government.

44. Internationalize the Panama Canal.

45. Repeal the Connally reservation so the United States cannot prevent the World Court from seizing jurisdiction over nations and individuals alike.Mark Wilson/Getty Images(WASHINGTON) -- Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, is speaking out against a federal judges ruling overturning the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as Obamacare.



She told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on This Week Sunday that she believes the judges ruling overturning the entire law goes too far and that the court should instead remove the individual mandate to buy health insurance while keeping the rest of the law intact.



The judges ruling was far too sweeping. He could have taken a much more surgical approach and just cut down the individual mandate and keep the rest of the law intact, Collins said.



Collins criticized the individual mandate for being a tax disproportionately on lower and middle income taxpayers, but expressed support for parts of the Affordable Care Act.



There are many good provisions of the law. Those should be retained, Collins added.



Collins was responding to the ruling issued Friday by a federal district court judge in Texas on a lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys general from 20 states challenging the constitutionality of the individual mandate.



Judge Reed OConnor held that because last years tax reform bill set the individual mandates tax to zero, it no longer functioned as an instance of Congress constitutionally protected power to tax. In 2012, U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts had cited that power in his decision to cast the deciding vote to uphold the law.



OConnor concluded that striking down the individual mandate would necessitate throwing out the rest of the law. He did not, however, issue an injunction, meaning the law can continue to be applied as the appeal process continues. The case will likely head to the Supreme Court.



Collins found a middle ground, suggesting that while other key provisions of the law should be retained, the individual mandate should still be cut from the existing law.



This disproportionately affected lower and middle income families. In addition, not one Democratic senator offered an amendment to strike the repeal of the individual mandate, although they had the opportunity to do so. And thats because it was probably the most unpopular and unfair provision of the Affordable Care Act, Collins said.



The Maine Republican said that she did not regret her support for the tax reform bill that zeroed out the individual mandate penalty and led to the federal courts decision but said that access to affordable health care still needs to be improved.



It's something we should still pursue because affordability is a real problem for so many Americans who do not receive the subsidies under the Affordable Care Act because they make just a little more than 400 percent of the poverty rate, Collins said.

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.



Thursday we saw that Kansas state Senator Barbara Bollier, from the suburbs south of Kansas City, had quit the GOP and joined the Democrats . I ended with a question:

Now... will Democrats influence Bollier towards understanding and adopting more progressive values? Or will Bollier influence Kansas Democrats in the legislature to become more conservative?

Kansas City Star, My worries have just been compounded because, as Steve Kraske reported for the more Kansas Republicans are defecting or considering defecting. "In the wake of Bolliers announcement," wrote Kraske, "Sen. Dinah Sykes, another moderate Republican from Johnson County, is contemplating doing the same thing." So is state Rep. Stephanie Clayton of Overland Park. And in nearby Leawood, state Rep. Joy Koesten says she's switching.





"So is this the beginning of a significant political realignment in the state that could lead to the eventual extinction of moderate Republicans," he asked? "Or is this a mere blip on Kansas always evolving political radar screen? Theres a lot to unpack here." Remember from the Thursday piece how incredibly nasty the reaction was towards Bollier from the right-wing extremist, Susan Wagle of Wichita, the Senate president?









Democratic newcomer Rui Xus victory over moderate state Rep. Melissa Rooker of Fairway shook a lot of Republicans. Clayton contends that conservatives actively worked against Rooker out of pure spite. Rooker was left fighting a two-front war against newly resurgent Democrats and her own party.



Moderates are feeling increasingly isolated in a political no-mans-land. Thats an ugly place for anybody. The question I have been asking myself is, what is the path forward for moderates in Kansas? Sykes said. Right now, Republican leaders dont want them, and Democratic voters arent pulling their levers.



Democratic Party leaders, though, have unfurled the welcome map. President Donald Trump, they point out, will be on the 2020 ballot and will be a focal point, just as he was this year. That alone should keep Democratic hopes high, particularly in suburban areas such as Johnson County... Too many Trump lies. Too much misguided tax policy from Gov. Sam Brownback.

Extremist Kansas Secretary of State, Kris Kobach (R), managed to lose the gubernatorial race last month-- in a state with an R+13 PVI (redder than Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, South Carolina and Missouri). Trump won the state 671,018 (56.6%) to 427,005 (36.0%) but many people say his rally for Kobach in Kansas City did Kobach more harm than good. The rally also helped propel Democrat Sharice Davids to a victory over GOP incumbent Kevin Yoder. In the end Davids beat Yoder 164,253 (53.3%) to 136,104 (44.2%), with a gigantic majority in the Wyandotte County part of the district and a substantial win in Johnson County (which is most of the district).





And in the rest of eastern Kansas, the Democrats would probably have won the congressional race, except for the DCCC recruiting a very conservative Blue Dog, Paul Davis, who no self-respecting progressive would want to vote for. Steve Watkins edged him 124,895 (48.1%) to 120,421 (46.4%).





Is Kansas changing? It looks that way, but... how far right will the Democratic Party have to move to accommodate mainstream conservative Republicans ("moderates")?Individual One by Nancy Ohanian



-by Reese Erlich





New York, America's largest city is abuzz over the latest revelations about Donald Trump's crimes. I'm here on book tour discussing Iran, but audiences want to know if Trump will be impeached.





Court documents filed in the case of Trump's long-time personal lawyer Michael Cohen show The Donald paid off two women with whom he had sexual relations. Prosecutors consider the payments, totaling several hundred thousand dollars, to be illegal campaign contributions because they were explicitly used to prevent scandal during the 2016 presidential race.





Top Democratic Party leaders admit those payments constitute impeachable offenses, but have so far not called for impeachment. Rep. Jerrold Nadler (Dem-NY), who will head the House Judiciary Committee in January, has become the master of equivocation.





"Well, they would be impeachable offenses ," he told CNN. "Whether they are important enough to justify an impeachment is a different question."





Case for impeachment





In my opinion, Trump is guilty of a number of high crimes and misdemeanors. He has escalated the undeclared wars in Syria and Yemen. He obstructed justice by firing FBI Director James Comey and lied about meetings his advisors had with Russians.





Target Iraq.) He said Trump regularly violates the Constitution's Norman Solomon, co-founder of RootsAction , has been building a grass-roots movement for impeachment over the past two years. (Solomon is also co-author with me of the book.) He said Trump regularly violates the Constitution's emoluments clause . The Trump family directly benefits from foreign governments renting rooms in Trump hotels in Washington DC., among other shading business dealings.





"Trump has been violating these clauses since his first day as president," Solomon told me.





I think pursuing impeachment is one legitimate tactic by what is emerging as a broad anti-Trump movement. For now, the Republican-dominated Senate is not likely to convict Trump. By voting for impeachment in the House, but losing in the Senate, the Democrats could end up strengthening Trump . But new evidence may yet emerge. And even a House vote to impeach would force Trump to focus on defending himself, and potentially reduce his ability to wreak havoc on the government.





Last year 58 members of the House voted to debate impeachment. Democrats now hold a majority and the party base remains very angry at Trump's corruption and despotism. The House could start impeachment hearings at anytime and enjoy considerable popular support.





Russia Connection?





You noticed that I didn't mention Trump's collusion/conspiracy with Putin as one of the impeachable offenses. I think liberals have overplayed that connection, and it's likely to backfire.





To date, there's no evidence that Trump cooperated with Russia to illegally influence the 2016 elections or adopt pro-Russian policies as a quid pro quo for favorable business dealings.





Yes, the Russians spent a few hundred thousand dollars to set up fake social media sites to attack Hillary Clinton and support Trump. But, despite the liberal outcry, it had relatively small impact





Trump won by less than 80,000 votes in three key states. The Democrats lost because Trump appealed to alienated white voters and the Clinton campaign tilted right rather than mobilizing new voters with a progressive program.





Yes, high level Trump officials met with Russians in hopes of getting dirt on Clinton. And Trumps campaign advocated easing Russian sanctions and establishing better relations with Putin.





But those activities are just as easily explained as political maneuvers rather than conspiracies. Trump was looking for whatever support he could get. During the campaign he sometimes professed an isolationist foreign policy that included improving relations with Russia. For their part, Russian leaders hoped for an end to Hillary Clinton's liberal interventionism.





If Putin and Trump had a secret deal, why did Trump immediately appoint ultra-conservative interventionists to key cabinet posts, who then cranked up hostility with Russia?





For too many Democrats, Putin bashing also serves a convenient political purpose, according to Alan MacLeod, a researcher at Glasgow Media Group.





"If Russia is to blame, there is no need for introspection, nor to cede political ground to progressives," he told me. "Instead it can be business as usual. There is no need to change policies, reflect upon a poorly run campaign,  or to understand why their policies failed to inspire the American public."





Attacking Trump from the right





Insisting on a Putin-Trump conspiracy also promotes Russia as a dangerous enemy, and allows Democrats to attack Trump from the right on national security issues.





Nancy Pelosi, who will become speaker of the House, summed up the mainstream Democratic Party view succinctly earlier this year.





It seems that Putin is Trumps puppeteer," she said





The new Russian boogie man not only challenges the United States in eastern Europe and the Middle East, it threatens our democratic elections! according to leading liberals.





Earlier this year Rep. Nadler and other Democratic House leaders called for increased sanctions against Russia. Nadler proclaimed, If we do not take any action, the American people may not trust the outcome of the next election."





As it turns out, Russian midterm election interference never materialized.





In reality Russia is a lesser imperialist power compared to the United States, or even Britain and France. It seeks hegemony in a limited number of places, such as the former USSR and Eastern Europe, and more recently, in parts of the Middle East. Putin heads an authoritarian government that oppresses the Russian people. But Russia is no more threat to the people of United States than any other lesser imperialist power. We face far greater threats from the neocons currently occupying the White House.





I view Russian interference in US elections the same way I see its espionage. Both countries carry out illegal spying on one another. Occasionally a spy is caught. One side self righteously denounces the other, but no one believes espionage will topple either government.





A recent Gallup poll showed that 58% of the American people favor improving relations with Russia while only 38% want more sanctions. So in both factual and practical terms, the Democrats should stop braying about the Trump-Putin conspiracy and focus on the White House's real crimes.







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.Search All categories Advertising General Aerospace General Agriculture General Airlines General America - Post 9/11 General Apparel General Apple Products General Architectural General Architecture Architecture Art & Entertainments Books Celebrities Country Music Dance Magazines Movies Museums Music Music Downloads News & Talk Shows Performing Arts Photography Television Web Sites Arts/Culture General Auction General Automotive Aftermarket Classic Autos Consumer Publications General Motorcycle & Bike Racing Recreational Vehicle Repair & Service Trade Publications Blogging & Social Media Blogging & Social Media Business Advertising / Marketing Books Consumer Research Direct Marketing e-Commerce Entrepreneurs Finance Franchise Human Resources Insurance Investment Management Markets Network Marketing Online Marketing / SEO Payday Loans Public Relations Publications Real Estate Retail Stocks Supermarkets Women in Business 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American Interests Asian Interests Childrens Issues Disabled Issues / Disabilities Gay / Lesbian Hispanic Mens Interests Native American Senior Citizens Social Services Teen Issues/Interests Womens Interest Software General Sports Baseball Basketball Bicycling Boating / Maritime Bowling Boxing Fishing Football Golf Hockey Hunting Martial Arts Outdoors Rugby Soccer Tennis Water Winter/Snow Sports/Fitness General Stocks General Supermarkets General Technology Biotechnology Computer Electronics Enterprise Software Games Graphics/Printing/CAD Hardware / Peripherals Industrial Information Internet Multimedia Networking Public Sector/Government Robotics Semiconductor Software Telecommunications Webmasters Telecom General Wireless Television General Tobacco General Trade General Transportation General Travel General Utilities General Volunteer Volunteer Weather WeatherPham Thiet Hoa, Director of the Online Trade and Investment Information Portal (ITPC) said the completion of the roadmap to cut tariffs in ASEAN offers opportunities for Vietnamese businesses to increase exports to the bloc, which is the fourth biggest export market of Vietnam, after the EU, the US and China.

With the combined population of 660 million people, ASEAN is expected to become the fourth largest economy in the word by 2030.

Wu Jun, Consul General of China in Ho Chi Minh City said China has been the largest trade partner of Vietnam for years while Vietnam is the largest ASEAN trader and among top ten global traders of China.

In the past 11 months, Vietnam earned an export value of over 38 billion USD from China, a surge of 23 percent from the same time in 2017.

As the second largest economy in the world with a market population of 1.3 billion people, China is projected to import more than US$30,000 billion worth of goods and US$10,000 billion worth of services in 15 years.

To fully explore the ASEAN market, Vietnamese businesses need to take part in more trade promotion activities and market research programmes, and study market needs regarding commodities, services, prices, consumers taste, and consumer trends, Hoa said.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Thi Ngoc Hang, head of the marketing desk at the office for Halal certification in Ho Chi Minh City said many Vietnamese businesses have yet paid attention to satisfying the needs of Islamic people who account for half of ASEANs population.

Vietnams products with Halal certification could reach other Islamic markets in the world after they enter the ASEAN market, according to Hang.



To increase exports to China, Wu Jun suggested Vietnamese businesses keep them constantly updated with market demands along with boosting marketing activities.

Amid technology-based consumer trends, Vietnamese businesses are advised to prepare technological foundations to speed up trans-national e-commerce.

They need to use advanced machinery and technology in production to ensure the consistent quality of products to meet the needs of large-scale markets, experts said.* China will temporarily suspend additional 25 percent tariffs on U.S.-made vehicles and auto parts starting January 1, 2019, the finance ministry said on December 14, following a truce in a trade war between the world's two largest economies.

* French government planned tough security measures by mobilizing thousands of officers and using armored vehicles to handle more threats of violence as "Yellow Vests" are set to stage a fresh round of nationwide protests on Saturday (December 15), despite President Emmanuel Macron's measures seeking to quell public anger over poor revenue and soaring living costs.

* Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte expressed hope on December 14 of reaching a deal with Brussels this weekend over his government's revised 2019 budget to avoid an EU disciplinary procedure, but offered few new concessions.

* Cypriot lawmakers on December 14 passed by a majority vote the 2019 state budget after the highly partisan parliament put a block on reforms of the state bureaucracy and took control of a plan to reduce non-performing loans (NPLs).

* Russian and Syrian government representatives signed a number of economic, scientific and industrial agreements in Syria's capital Damascus on December 14, state news agency SANA reported.

* Three militants and two civilians were killed Saturday in a fierce gunfight and subsequent clashes with government forces in restive Indian-controlled Kashmir, officials said.

* At least 16 people were killed and five sustained injuries in a road accident in Nuwakot district of central Nepal on December 14 evening, local police authorities confirmed.

* China's top economic planner approved 13 fixed-asset investment projects in November in high-tech and transportation sectors with a combined investment of CNY24.2 billion (about US$3.5 billion), latest data showed.

* Chile's fruit exports reached record levels in the first 11 months of the year, largely driven by Chinese consumer demand for cherries, plums and grapes, according to official sources.

* The Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our America (ALBA) concluded its XVI Summit in Havana Friday (December 14) with a declaration in defense of Latin America and the Caribbean as a zone of peace.

* The United Nations Special Envoy for Syria Staffan de Mistura will hold talks with high-level officials from Iran, Russia and Turkey in Geneva early next week on setting up a constitutional committee, a U.N. statement said on December 14.

* The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved a loan of US$96.6 million for the implementation of a program aimed at improving employment in Morocco, a financial daily reported on December 14.

* Kosovo's parliament voted on December 14 to create a 5,000-strong standing army, a week after Serbia's premier suggested the move could provoke military intervention by Belgrade.

* Fighting broke out on the outskirts of Yemen's port city of Hodeidah on December 14, residents said, a day after a ceasefire agreement was reached by the warring parties at U.N.-sponsored peace talks.

* Colombia will spend an additional COP4.5 trillion (US$1.42 billion) on public higher education during President Ivan Duque's four years in office, he said on December 14, as a student strike protesting the lack of resources stretched to 10 weeks.

* Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari said the country's economy was in "bad shape", the governor of a northwestern state told reporters on December 14 after a meeting with governors from across the country.

* Iraq's foreign ministry has summoned the Turkish ambassador in Baghdad and handed him a letter of protest over "repeated air(space) violations," it said in a statement on December 14.

* Brazil launched its first domestically built submarine, named Riachuelo, on December 14 in Rio de Janeiro state under the witness of Brazilian President Michel Temer and President-elect Jair Bolsonaro.

* The Nigerian military has lifted its suspension of activities by the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) in the northeast of Nigeria, it said in a statement on December 14.John Moore/Getty Images(EL PASO, Texas) -- The family of the 7-year-old girl who died while in border patrol custody is calling for a "transparent and neutral investigation" into the circumstances that led to her death, attorneys representing her heartbroken family said in a statement Saturday.



The tragic death of Jakelin Caal Maquin, who was just five days past her birthday when she died after crossing the U.S.-Mexico border earlier this month, should be investigated within "nationally recognized standards for the arrest and custody of children," said Ruben Garcia, the director of Annunciation House, a non-profit organization that is working with her family.



"The family intends to assist in such an investigation into the cause and circumstances of Jakelin's death," Garcia read from a statement prepared by the family's attorneys, during a Saturday afternoon press conference in El Paso, Texas.



Garcia spoke on behalf of Jakelin's parents: her father, Nery Gilberto Caal Cruz, with whom she crossed the border; and her mom, Claudia Marivel Maquin Coc.



Jakelin "was a beautiful and loving child," Garcia said during the news conference.



"Jakelin and her father came to the United States seeking something that thousands have been seeking for years: An escape from the dangerous situation in their home country," Garcia read, referring to Guatemala. "This was their right under U.S. and international law."

Late Saturday evening, Guatemalan Consul Tekandi Paniagua told ABC News that Cruz -- Jakelins father -- was grateful to the border patrol and the doctors who tried to save his daughter's life.

"When I spoke to the father he actually said he was very grateful for the effort of both the Border Patrol agents that assisted his daugther at the station as well as the medical staff at the hospital," Paniagua said.

Jakelin's death became public Thursday, five days after she died from dehydration and cardiac arrest, and sparked out sparked outrage from Democrats and immigration advocates alike.



"There are no words to capture the horror of a seven-year-old girl dying of dehydration in U.S. custody," former presidential candidate and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton tweeted Friday. "Whats happening at our borders is a humanitarian crisis."



Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol officials on Friday defended their handling of the incident. Among the challenges cited, DHS and CBP said it took 90 minutes to get Jakelin medical attention after Caal Cruz alerted agents that she was sick.



Four border patrol agents apprehended a group of 160 migrants -- among them Jakelin and her father -- and there was no medical staff nearby.



Finally, a CBP official with direct knowledge of the investigation told ABC News that a single bus equipped to transport children from a remote part of the New Mexico border had to make two trips to take everyone. Jakelin had to wait four hours for the bus to return for her and her father, the official said.



Jakelin later had a 105.9-degree fever and had to be airlifted to a children's hospital in El Paso. That's when she went into cardiac arrest, suffered brain swelling and liver failure, according to CBP and DHS officials.



She died less than 24 hours later, DHS said.



But Jakelin's family said through Garcia the little girl had been taken care of by her father, who made sure she had eaten and was hydrated.



"She had suffered from a lack of water or food prior to approaching the border," Garcia said Saturday.



Garcia added that Jakelin and her family who speak Q'eqchi, and Spanish as a second language. They don't speak English, Garcia added, yet Caal Cruz filled out an English form during processing.



"It is unacceptable for any government agency to have persons in custody sign documents in a language that they clearly do not understand," Garcia said.



They urged patience while the medical examiner in El Paso County, which conducted Jakelin's autopsy, makes a public statement regarding the cause of death.



Her body has left El Paso and is being transported to a funeral home in Laredo that works with Guatemalan consulate. From there, her body will be repatriated to Guatemala, Garcia said.



"The family of Jakelin ... is still coping with their profound loss," Garcia said. "The death of a child is the most painful experience that a parent or family can endure."

Copyright  2018, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.Giving birth should be as enjoyable, even if a little painful, as pregnancy. It does not have to come with a big ordeal, pain or surgical intervention. We need to rethink our perceptions of pregnancy and delivery, says Shorouk, the mother of a five-year-old daughter.

It was six years ago that Shorouk, who had been married for less than a year, learned she was pregnant for the first time. I had no plans for a long wait before having a child. I was in the second half of my 20s and happily married, so getting pregnant towards the end of the first year of marriage sounded right, she recalled.

What did not sound right, however, was the experience of a cousin who had her first baby a few weeks after Shorouks gynaecologist announced the happy news.

Natural birth

I went to wish her well two days after she left hospital. She was in obvious pain, and she was clearly tired and unable to move comfortably or hold her newborn easily. She had had a Caesarean section giving birth, Shourouk said.

This was not what she was hoping for in her own delivery. It was not the first time I had seen a woman who had just given birth or who had gone through a surgical delivery, but because I was in the first weeks of my pregnancy it was particularly discomforting for me to see a woman who was supposed to be happy at being a first-time mother going through so much pain. I decided then that this was not what I wanted, she said.

Shorouk chose to share her thoughts with her obstetrician. He was really dismissive. He thought I did not need to think about the delivery, and he said that he would take care of things as they came. I thought that was very condescending. I decided I needed to see another doctor, and I started asking round and going through Facebook groups and websites that dealt with pregnancy and giving birth.

It was then that Shorouk learned about a doctor whose clinic was not far from her house in Alexandria.

Natural birth

I went to see Dr Hana. She seemed to have got me right from the first visit to her clinic. I told her that I was willing to put up with pain, but that I did not want to be subject to any surgical intervention that would force me to stay in bed or to go through extensive recovery pains. I also told her that I worried about my shape and that I wanted to keep my body looking beautiful. She understood what I was talking about and promised that we would prepare for a natural birth unless something came up, Shorouk said.

This preparation turned out to be hard work for Shorouk. I had to make sure that I ate healthily and exercised regularly. I had to do things that I enjoy and listen to music. I also had to attend courses at a gym given by a natural birth trainer to prepare my body for a natural delivery, and I had a lot of reading to do to understand what my body was going through from the early weeks of pregnancy through delivery and beyond, she added.

Towards the end of the second week of the ninth month of her pregnancy, Shorouk learned that she would have to go to hospital in anticipation of an imminent delivery. Her obstetrician chose a hospital where there were sufficient rooms equipped for natural birth.

When I talk about natural birth, I mean a birth in my room not in an operating theatre. This was what I wanted: a natural birth in a well-equipped place under the supervision of a trusted physician that could handle any emergency, she said.

Upon her admission to hospital and after having gone through basic medical checkups, she met the doula that had worked with her through the last weeks of her pregnancy on breathing techniques and body training for childbirth.

A doula is a birth trainer and companion who does not replace either the obstetrician or the nurse but who helps a pregnant woman go through a natural birth.

I was very lucky with my doula who had been very well trained. We got along well, and this is as essential as getting along well with the doctor herself, Shorouk said.

After having been checked by her obstetrician, Shorouk, alone in the room with her husband and the doula, worked through a few types of squats. When Shorouk felt the baby was about to come into the world, the doctor came in with a nurse for another round of monitoring before Shorouks daughter Farah was born.

I cannot say there was zero pain, but it was not the brutal scene of pain I imagined from accounts shared by family and friends. It was exactly the way I wanted it to be. I was aware of everything, and Mohamed [the husband] was with me all the way through. When Farah came, I immediately saw her and held her in my arms while Mohamed with the help of the doctor cut the umbilical cord.

All this is a very beautiful memory, Shorouk said.

Natural birth

Back To Nature

Hana Abul-Qassem is a gynaecologist and obstetrician who insists on helping pregnant women have a natural birth.

It has been a growing trend all over the world for years, and more and more women are opting for natural births with minimum intervention. More and more women also go through labour and delivery in birth centres rather than hospitals, Abul-Qassem said.

It was in the 1990s when she was studying in the US that Abul-Qassem did extensive training on the techniques of natural birth.

Some cases go through a 100 per cent natural birth in their room or their house; some opt for a water birth; and in some cases we opt for what we could call a semi-natural birth whereby the obstetrician intervenes either to enhance the process of labour or to help extract the baby, Abul-Qassem said.

When a little under 10 years ago she came back to start her campaign for natural birth in Egypt, Abul-Qassem was a pioneering back-to-nature obstetrician in her native Alexandria.

Pregnant women would come to her clinic, but would sometimes be worried by natural births.

Mothers who often come with pregnant daughters, especially for a first baby, would look un-amused and would say things like, I dont want my daughters life to be put at risk. She needs to give birth in an operating theatre for her safety, and so on, Abul-Qassem recalled.

A decade down the road, Abul-Qassem says she is getting more requests for natural birth options from young mothers-to-be, especially first-time ones.

I would not say we have a growing trend, as there is still a preference for medicated birth options including Caesarean sections as some women like to think of these as a pain-free birth path, Abul-Qassem noted.

Research published in the UK medical journal The Lancet in October found that rates of Caesarean sections almost doubled between 2000 and 2015 from 12 to 21 per cent worldwide, with the sometimes life-saving surgery unavailable to many women in poorer countries while often over-used in richer ones.

According to the same research, in at least 15 countries more than 40 per cent of all babies are born by Caesarean section.

Prominent gynaecologist and obstetrician Sherif Hamza argues that for Egypt the rate is around a little over 40 per cent. At times it is the choice of the obstetrician, but many times it is the wish of the pregnant woman herself, Hamza said.

Several obstetricians who spoke to Al-Ahram Weekly about the situation in government, university and private hospitals agreed with this assessment.

They also agreed that the rate was perhaps a little more in private than in government hospitals due to the financial means that prompt some women to prefer what they think of as a pain-free path.

It is not exactly pain-free because the pain of recovery from surgery should not be ignored. While of course an able obstetrician should never have a problem with this kind of operation, every surgical intervention comes with a certain risk, so it is our job as obstetricians to encourage women to take the natural path, Hamza said.

He added that the assumption that a good delivery has to be pain-free needs to be refuted. Going through labour comes with pain, though of course there are things to be done before and during labour to manage and control the pain. The best thing is always the natural path, he added.

According to Abul-Qassem, many Caesarean sections could be averted if women and doctors worked towards a natural birth path. This means that doctors have to take the time to listen to women and to answer their questions and to comfort their fears. It also means that through their pregnancies women have to be carefully examined and followed up by their doctors to make sure that no unpleasant surprises occur.

She added that while it was true that some women and some doctors simply opt for Caesarean sections to avoid inconvenient birth hours and avert labour pains, it was also true that the failure of some women to go through regular check-ups forced obstetricians to resort to surgical interventions.

Egypt was placed third by The Lancet study in the use of Caesarean sections world wide, with the implication being that these are often unnecessary.

Natural birth

Women's Experiences

Nadia is one woman who opted for a surgical intervention for the birth of her two children.

It was in the early 1990s, she recalls, and although my doctor suggested I could try to go through regular labour, I opted for the surgical intervention. I did not want to feel anything. I did not want to be one of those women who are left to scream for hours before they are given a Caesarean section. It was simple and fast both times, though it is true that the surgical recovery was not the easiest thing in the world, but it was not so bad either, she said.

Labour is a process that can take anything from four to 24 hours, Hamza said. Some women panic when the process goes beyond eight hours, and they start fearing complications. Families, he added, also worry for the health of the mother and the expected baby. Then there are pressures on the doctor to resort to a Caesarean section, he said.

A doctors job is to comfort his patient and not to force her into anything. I personally much prefer natural birth, but if a patient insists then I have to explain the situation and wait for her decision, Hamza stated.

Both Hamza and Abul-Qassem agreed that there is a great deal of blame to be put on a lack of awareness for the increase of Caesarean section rates in Egypt.

Women need to know a lot more about their bodies and about the entire process of pregnancy and birth. They need to talk more with their doctors and their partners, which could help them be less fearful of natural birth, Abul-Qassem said.

In her early 20s, Habiba is four months pregnant. She is determined that unless she absolutely cant she will opt for a natural birth. She is currently attending classes at a family wellness centre where she is getting training on muscle management and breathing techniques to prepare for her first natural birth.

Habiba is convinced that going through natural labour allows a woman to be in control of her body. I know that some women have to go through a Caesarean section, but if it is not mandatory then I would like to be there for my baby when he or she comes out and to be able to hold the baby immediately, she said.

Hamza agreed that immediate mother-baby contact upon birth is important for both the mother and the newborn.

Sally, in her late 30s, is expecting her third child. Like during the first two she is planning to opt for a 100 per cent natural birth. She has always wanted to avert all medical interventions that deny her a sense of her body or undermine the sense of partnership that she thinks marriage is all about.

Most women around me opt to have an IUD inserted in their bodies for birth control, and they would not want their husbands to be around when they are going through birth. Most husbands prefer it this way, but this was not the case for me and Mustafa. Right from the beginning, we agreed that marriage was about two people, and this included decisions on family planning options and birth options, she said.

For her next baby, Sally and Mustafa say they will stick to natural birth. I must say at moments I get worried for her, but overall I think it is the best choice because I am always with her. I can hold her hand and talk to her, and we see the baby together as it comes into life, Mustafa said.

This time, the couple is considering a water birth, an option that has only been available in Egypt for a few years by very few doctors.

Hamza is one of the leading names in providing water births. It is perfectly safe provided that a womans condition is normal and that we are not expecting any complications. It is perfectly hygienic, contrary to the fears of some, and it allows a couple to be together while their new baby is coming to life. They can talk and listen to music provided they understand that labour is often a relatively lengthy process, he said.

Hamza has seen more couples wishing to opt for water births. He thinks it is something that more and more women, usually younger and well acquainted with recent trends, opt for.

Water Births

Over three years ago, Jihan, now in her late 20s, opted for a water birth with Abul-Qassem.

It was my first pregnancy. I have always loved swimming and I just love water. I spoke to my husband, and he was very supportive, and I travelled from Cairo to Alexandria to meet Abul-Qassem and agree on how to handle the pregnancy in anticipation of the birth, she recalled.

Jihan had an unexpected early beginning of labour. It was around one oclock in the morning when my water broke, about two weeks earlier than anticipated, and I thought I am not going to make it to Alexandria, she said.

Scared to go through labour on the Desert Road, she and her husband went to the nearest hospital and sought the help of the obstetrician.

It was an obnoxious experience. He had not even examined me properly before he asked whether I wanted an epidural or full anesthesia. When I said I did not want either, he gave me a very odd look and then turned to a nurse and said, take her to the operating theatre, Jihan recalled. I felt like I was a car being taken to a garage rather than a woman going through labour, she added.

At that point Jihan and her husband decided to go to Alexandria come what may. They called Abul-Qassem, who offered some help, and they drove straight to the hospital.

It was a matter of an hour or so at the birthing tub before we had Asser, our baby. We both cried and laughed when I was holding him, and Tamer was holding both of us while we were still in the tub, she recalled.

Jihan said she would opt for a water birth the next time she is having a child.

A water birth is something that a medical midwife can supervise provided that the womans condition is good, said Charlotte Caillibot, a Cairo-based midwife.

A mid-wife, in the modern sense of the term, is different from the traditional Egyptian midwife of the early decades of the 20th century. She is also different from a doula because she is medically trained.

I have a medical degree that requires fewer years of study than a physicians degree, and it allows me to monitor a safe pregnancy and to refer one that may have complications to a doctor. I help women with no problems go through labour, possibly at home, and follow up on them for the first few weeks after childbirth, Caillibot said.

Having worked in France for years, Caillibot said that she would not risk providing home-birthing services even for European women in Egypt where this was not licensed.

Ahmed Rashed is another prominent obstetrician. Having worked all over Egypt, Rashed is hesitant about any unintentional over-promotion of fashionable ways of giving birth that might not be compatible with the Egyptian context.

When we talk about possible mid-wife assisted births, we are overlooking some key facts, Rashed argued. He warned that the promotion of resorting to midwives in the absence of medically trained birth assistants could prompt some women, especially in rural and poorer areas, to opt for traditional midwifery services, which is clearly risky.

Rashed also warned of the excessive use of doulas who are said to have been trained abroad without sufficient verification of their training just to serve the new fashion. He stressed that in a country where the majority of pregnant women fail to receive necessary medical observation, it might not be wise to skip a physicians help at a well-equipped hospital because this might have serious complications.

He is well aware of the legitimate concern at the overuse of Caesarean sections in Egypt. But he thinks they should be taken in the context of decreased maternal mortality.

We have to remember that while in some richer contexts women resort to surgical births to spare themselves the pain, and doctors might resort to it without absolute medical need just for scheduling convenience or even for financial interest, on the wider scale these operations sometimes help to save a mothers life and maybe a mothers and a childs life, Rashed said.

Caillibot agrees that a wider dependence on home births assisted by midwives is still not an option in Egypt. It might be the case for some women, but not for all, she said.

She is currently working on providing information and training courses, on a group and individual basis, for pregnant women who wish to prepare their minds and bodies for the path of natural birth.

Giving birth, Caillibot argued, is not just a physical process, but is also an emotional process. Women are sometimes physically prepared but not psychologically prepared, and this is the job for a midwife rather than an obstetrician, she said.

More awareness, more availability of obstetricians trained in modern ways of birth, and higher availability of doulas and midwives are said to be necessary for the reduction of Caesarean sections in favour of natural births.

Giving birth is close to an act of creation. Women used to glorify the body of a pregnant woman and to beautify her for the birth-giving process, said painter and photographer Salwa Rashad.

She was speaking at the opening of an exhibition of pictures and drawings that glorify womens bodies, especially through their biological phases. Other art exhibits on display by Noha Nagi and Aliaa Al-Gridi at the Darb 17/18 Gallery earlier this year depicted birth and breastfeeding.

Natural birth

Women, Rashad said, should cherish and glorify their bodies through every phase, including through the times of reproduction, rather than feeling bad about themselves. This is the message of our exhibition.

Novelist May Al-Telmessani in her novel Donyazad puts across an equally strong message about womens celebration of their reproductive functions. She depicts the acts of getting pregnant and of going through birth as intrinsically valuable in themselves.

Speaking about these parts of her novel, Al-Telmessani said that they were like the portrayal of any act in which a woman is heavily involved. Love, pregnancy and labour. These are part of womanhood. They are part of a womans journey, and she has to be an actor in them.

* A version of this article appears in print in the 13 December, 2018 edition of Al-Ahram Weekly under the headline: Back to natural birth

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President Abdel Fattah El Sisi will take part on Monday in the High-Level Forum Africa-Europe which will be held in Vienna.

The Forum is co-hosted by Paul Kagame, the President of the Republic of Rwanda and current Chairperson of the African Union, and Sebastian Kurz, the Federal Chancellor of the Republic of Austria, which holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union.

The two-day forum will be attended by African and European heads of state or government, CEOs of major global companies as well as innovative entrepreneurs and stakeholders to Corporates, as well as startups, to have the opportunity to interact with high-level government representatives, potential investors and cooperation partners.

The forums theme Taking cooperation to the digital age promotes innovation and digitalisation as important enablers for future development, so that everyone can benefit from the ongoing digital transformation. A lot of innovation is happening both in Africa and in Europe, with many creative start-ups providing solutions for different emerging challenges, and the forum will be an opportunity to showcase them and to learn from exchanged experiences.

The aim of the High-Level Forum is to highlight the untapped potential for deepening the partnership in technology exchange and trade as well as their importance for economic growth, creating jobs, building resilient societies and fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The forum will be accompanied by Business to Business (B2B) as well as Business to Government (B2G) meetings, where entrepreneurs and innovators will be able to exchange their concepts and solutions for the digital age.

The event will include as well a Round Table Programme that will focus on key themes linked to innovation for the digital age in Africa: Agriculture 4.0 (in cooperation with the Austrian Development Agency); FinTech (in cooperation with the Austrian Ministry of Finance); Jobs for the 21st century (in cooperation with the Austrian Ministry for Digital and Economic Affairs); Investing in Start-ups (in cooperation with ABAN/aaia/New Venture Scouting); Sustainable Energy Access (in cooperation with SEforALL); eGovernment (in cooperation with the European Commission); and Accelerating eCommerce in Africa (in cooperation with the World Economic Forum).

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Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi will be on a four-day visit to Vienna, Austria, starting Sunday.

During his visit, the president will hold talks with Swiss Chancellor Sebastian Kurz, which will take up means of bolstering bilateral ties at various levels.

The visit is expected to provide an opportunity to promote European-African cooperation at the political economic and security levels given the historical ties between Vienna and Cairo and Egypt's chairmanship of the African Union in 2019.

Both sides will also review several regional as well as international files of mutual concern.

The president is also expected to partake in the High-level Forum Africa-Europe 2018 schedueled for December 17,18.

The forum will discuss strengthening cooperation between Africa and the EU countries in migration, innovation and digital economy.

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Egypt's interior ministry said it is offering residency to foreigners who own residential properties in the country, in a bid to boost hard currency needed to improve the country's finances.

The decision came five months after the parliament passed amendments in July offering citizenship to foreigners who deposit at least 7 million Egyptian pounds (approximately $390,000) in Egypt and then hand it over to the state coffers after five years.

Under the new regulations, foreigners who own a registered property worth $100,000 will be offered one-year residence, the ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

Those who own a $200,000 residential unit will be offered three-year residency and others who own a $400,000 unit will be granted five-year residency, it added.

Foreigners are required to have used hard currency to buy the property after exchanging it to Egyptian pound through an Egyptian bank.

The unit should be officially registered and continues to hold the applicant's name. Foreigners who have bought under-construction homes will be offered the same types of residence for the same values of units assigned.

Those will be required to submit a document proving that foreign currency has been transferred from abroad to make the purchase.

Egypt aims at stabilising its economy and luring back foreign investors scared away by years of instability following the 2011 revolution.

The ministry said Saturday that the new regulations are also aimed to make it easier for foreigners to acquire residency in Egypt.

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Egypt's foreign ministry has called for an end to the "escalation in Palestine and the prevention of any practices that would only lead to further deterioration of the situation and undermine all efforts to revive the peace process."

In a statement issued on Sunday, Egypt expressed its deep concern about the ongoing developments in the occupied Palestinian territories and the Israeli incursions into various parts of the West Bank, noting the possible repercussions of this escalation on the security situation in the West Bank and other Palestinian territories.

The statement also stressed Egypt's support for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian leadership.

"Egypt supports the Palestinian cause and the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people to establish their independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital," the statement said.

The statement stressed that Egypt is continuing to intensify its efforts to halt the escalation and to contain the tension based on its regional role to promote peace and stability in the region.

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Ahead of his four-day visit to Vienna, Egyptian President Sisi meets with newly enrolled students at the Military Academy

Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi met early on Sunday with new Military Academy students in a video released by El-Sisi's spokesperson.

During his visit at dawn, El-Sisi gave a short speech to newly enrolled students at the Military Academy, urging them to train, work and study hard for the sake of their country.

"I was keen to come and meet you all at the beginning of your enrollment to stress that here at the Military Academy is where men are trained to serve their nation," El-Sisi said.

1

El-Sisi started his speech by encouraging the new students and preparing them for their new life at the Academy.

"For the new students, I want you to have a strong will and resilience I also want you to take this period of your life as a test life and the system here are different from your usual life," El-Sisi said.

The Egyptian president also stressed that "with God's blessings and with the sacrifices of military and police personnel, Egypt is safe and protected" because military and police are always ready to sacrifice their "souls and blood" for their country.

El-Sisi was accompanied by the Egyptian Defence Minister Mohamed Zaki as well as a number of military officials during his visit.

2

Near the end of his speech, El-Sisi warned the new students of mechanisms and systems that have lately been aiming to destroy the state.

He called on them to study these mechanisms as national security will be the main pillar of their duty.

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Egypt said it is annulling a 2015 decision that amended the calculation form of the American Diploma for Egyptian students following complaints by a number of parents.

In an interview with TV Presenter Amr Adib, Egypts Minister of Higher Education Khaled Abdel-Ghaffar announced the cancellation of the decision following consultations with the Supreme Council for Universities.

The 2015 decision amends the calculation form for students final grading, which allows them to apply at both public and private universities.

Parents argued that the 2015 decision deprived their children from joining top universities due to amendments to grading percentages that were deemed unfair due to the American Diploma examinations being an aptitude test that measures skill, making it impossible to achieve a grade of 100 percent.

The decision had also excluded the students from a bonus that was added to their grades to improve their chances to enter their preferred college, which could require grades higher than any foreign system.

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Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi arrived in Vienna on Sunday for a four-day official visit to take part in the high-level Africa-Europe Forum, co-hosted by Rwandan President Paul Kagame and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.

President El-Sisi is to deliver an address at the forum to discuss Egypt's efforts to push forward development in Africa.

A host of African and European leaders are taking part in the event, which aims to enhance African-European partnership.

Participants in the forum will hold a high-level dialogue under the title of Taking Cooperation to the Digital Age.

Regarding bilateral relations, President El-Sisi will hold talks with his Austrian counterpart and other senior officials as well as businessmen and investors on boosting cooperation in the trade, educational and scientific research, transport and investment domains.

On the sidelines of the forum, several round-table meetings will take place to discuss furthering African-European cooperation in the agricultural and technological domains and ways of ironing out hurdles to increasing cooperation between the two sides.

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Air strikes and fierce clashes shook the outskirts of Yemen's rebel-held port city of Hodeida overnight, pro-government sources and residents said Sunday, despite a UN-brokered ceasefire.

At least 29 fighters, including 22 Houthi rebels, were killed on Saturday night in clashes and air strikes in Hodeida province, a pro-government military source told AFP.

He added that seven rebels were captured during an attack on Al-Durayhimi district, which lies about 20 kilometres south of Hodeida city.

A resident of the city reached by telephone said that the clashes were "fierce" and the sounds of jets could be heard throughout the night until about 5 am (0200 GMT) on Sunday.

The fighting comes days after a UN-backed ceasefire came into effect, part of a hard-won accord agreed in Sweden between Yemen's warring sides.

The truce between Yemeni government forces, backed by a Saudi-led military coalition, and the Houthi rebels was due to be followed by the withdrawal within days of fighters on both sides.

In comments published Saturday on the rebel-run Saba news agency, the Houthis accused pro-government forces of shelling residential neighbourhoods in Hodeida city.

Thursday's ceasefire accord has been seen as the most significant step towards ending the devastating conflict in Yemen, where more than 14 million people are on the brink of famine.

A prisoner swap involving some 15,000 detainees is planned and a "mutual understanding" has been struck to facilitate aid deliveries to Yemen's third city Taiz -- under control of loyalists but besieged by rebels.

The two sides also agreed to meet again in late January for more talks to define the framework for negotiations on a comprehensive peace settlement.

The UN says the conflict has killed some 10,000 people and unleashed the world's worst humanitarian crisis.

Human rights groups say the death toll could be five times as high.

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The foreign minister of US ally Bahrain has defended Australias formal recognition of West Jerusalem as Israels capital, saying the move would not affect a future Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.

Australias government announced the decision on Saturday, reversing decades of Middle East policy, but said it would not immediately move its embassy there.

The United States in May opened its embassy in Jerusalem.

The Arab League had issued a statement criticizing the Australian decision as blatantly biased towards the positions and policies of the Israeli occupation.

But Bahraini minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa described the statement as mere rhetoric and irresponsible.

Australias stance does not impact the legitimate Palestinian demands, first among them being East Jerusalem as the capital of Palestine, and it does not contradict the Arab Peace Initiative, he tweeted on Saturday.

The status of Jerusalem, home to sites holy to the Muslim, Jewish and Christian faiths, is one of the biggest obstacles to a peace agreement between Israel and Palestinians who want East Jerusalem recognized as the capital of a Palestinian state.

Israel regards all of Jerusalem as its capital, including the eastern sector that it annexed in a move not recognized internationally, after the 1967 Middle East war.

The United Nations says the status of Jerusalem can be resolved only by negotiations.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has on several occasions hinted at warmer relations with Gulf Arab states and made a surprise visit to Oman in October to meet with its ruler Sultan Qaboos bin Said.

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UN chief Antonio Guterres called Sunday for a "credible" probe into journalist Jamal Khashoggi's murder in Saudi Arabia's consulate in Istanbul.

"It is absolutely essential to have a credible investigation and to have the punishment of those that were guilty," Guterres said at a conference in Doha.

The UN chief said he had no information on the case except what had been reported in the media.

Khashoggi, a Saudi contributor to the Washington Post, was killed on October 2 shortly after entering the kingdom's consulate in what Riyadh called a "rogue" operation.

Riyadh has since detained 21 people over the murder.

Turkey's foreign minister said on Sunday that Saudi Arabia has not yet shared information on a "local collaborator" in his country.

Mevlut Cavusoglu said at the conference that Riyadh has neither dislosed the name nor the facial composite of a suspect in Turkey.

"Why don't you share it with Turkey?" he asked.

"We know that (Khashoggi's) body was cut in pieces and his body was taken out of the consulate building, but we don't know where the body is.

"This is the main question, we need to find out."

On Saturday, Cavusoglu said that his country would "not give up" on establishing the truth about the murder.

Earlier this month, the minister said Turkey was in talks over a possible United Nations investigation into the killing which has provoked global outrage.

Some Western countries including the United States, France and Canada have placed sanctions on nearly 20 Saudi nationals.

* The story was edited by Ahram Online.

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U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will be leaving his post at the end of the year after serving for almost two years, U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Saturday, the latest high-profile departure from Trumps administration.

Trump did not give a reason for Zinke's departure. However, the former Navy Seal and ex-congressman from Montana has come under scrutiny for his use of security details, chartered flights and a real estate deal.

"Ryan has accomplished much during his tenure and I want to thank him for his service to our Nation," Trump said on Twitter. "The Trump administration will be announcing the new secretary of the Interior next week," he added.

Zinke has run the Interior Department overseeing Americas vast public lands since early 2017. He has pursued Trumps agenda to promote oil drilling and coal mining by expanding federal leasing, cutting royalty rates, and easing land protections.

Zinke, 51, was among Trump's most active Cabinet members, cutting huge wilderness national monuments in Utah to a fraction of their size and proposing offshore oil drilling in the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic. He became a darling of the U.S. energy and mining industries and a prime target for conservationists and environmental groups.

Critics also questioned Zinke's ethics and some of his moves triggered government investigations.

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A month of "yellow vest" protests have taken a further toll on the popularity of French President Emmanuel Macron, a new poll showed Sunday, with analysts saying he will be forced to change his style of governing.

Around 66,000 protesters turned out again on Saturday on the fifth round of anti-government demonstrations, which sprung up over diesel taxes last month.

The figure was about half the number of the previous weekend, suggesting momentum was waning and the most acute political crisis of Macron's 19-month presidency was coming to an end.

"It is calming down, but what remains of it all is a strong feeling of hatred towards Macron," said veteran sociologist Herve Le Bras from the School of Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences (EHESS).

A major poll by the Ifop group published in Journal du Dimanche newspaper showed Macron's approval had slipped another two points in the last month, to 23 percent.

The proportion of people who declared themselves "very dissatisfied" by his leadership jumped by six points to 45 percent.

Many of the protesters have targeted Macron personally, calling on him to resign or targeting his background as an investment banker and alleged elitism.

A different poll by Ipsos on Wednesday last week showed that a mere 20 percent of respondents were happy with his presidency, a fall of six points to its lowest ever level.

Le Bras said the protests had underlined the depth of dislike for Macron's personality and style of governing, which critics see as arrogant and too distant.

"Even by being more humble, it's going to be complicated," he added.

'Context has changed'

Until last week, a clear majority of French people had backed the protests, which sprung up initially over high taxes before snowballing into a wider opposition front against Macron.

In a bid to end the standoff, he announced a package of measures for low-income workers on Monday in a televised address, estimated by economists to cost up to 15 billion euros ($17 billion).

The 40-year-old also acknowledged widespread animosity towards him and came close to apologising for a series of verbal gaffes seen as dismissive of the poor or jobless.

Two polls published last Tuesday -- in the wake of Macron's concessions -- suggested the country was now broadly 50-50 on whether the protests should continue.

"It's a movement that has succeeded in forcing back what looked like a strong government," Jerome Sainte-Marie, a public opinion expert at the Pollingvox group, told AFP.

"People have confidence in themselves now, so things won't return to how they were on November 15" before the protests started, he said.

"The context in which Emmanuel Macron holds power has changed," he added.

The former investment banker had until now styled himself as a determined pro-business reformer who would not yield to pressure from protests like his predecessors.

"Macron has given an indication that he is more open to dialogue," Jean-Daniel Levy from the Harris Interactiv polling group told AFP.

The government has announced a six-month consultation with civil society groups, mayors, businesses and the "yellow vests" to discuss tax and other economic reforms.

Hikes in petrol and diesel taxes, as well as tougher emissions controls on old vehicles -- justified on the grounds of environmental protection -- were what sparked the "yellow vest" movement.

Macron "won't necessarily change the overall course of his reforms, rather the way he carries them out," Levy added.

Yellow vests demonstrations

Calls for calm

In Paris on Saturday, the more than 8,000 police on duty easily outnumbered the 2,200 protesters counted by local authorities.

There were 168 arrests by early evening, far fewer than the 1,000 or so of last Saturday.

Tear gas was occasionally fired, but only a fraction compared with the weekends of December 8 or December 1 when graffiti was daubed on the Arc de Triomphe in scenes that shocked France.

Richard Ferrand, the head of the National Assembly, welcomed the "necessary" weakening of "yellow vest" rallies on Saturday, adding that "there had been a massive response to their demands".

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner also called on protesters to halt their blockades across the country which have seen traffic and businesses disrupted.

"Everyone's safety has to become the rule again," he said in a tweet.

"Dialogue now needs to unite all those who want to transform France."

He said eight people had died since the start of the movement.

Around 69,000 security forces were mobilised across France on Saturday, down from 89,000 the weekend before when 2,000 people were detained.

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As a hunger strike by jailed Catalan separatist politicians enters its third week and begins to take a toll on their health, they say their upcoming rebellion trial will allow them to peacefully promote their cause for independence from Spain.

In rare interviews in a prison north of Barcelona, Jordi Sanchez and Jordi Turull, who has been in a medical ward since Friday, repeated calls for dialogue between Catalans regional government and Spains central authorities in Madrid.

They also rejected any depiction of the secessionist movement in the prosperous northeastern region of Catalonia as violent.

Sanchez told The Associated Press that their trial, set to begin early next year, will be a unique moment to denounce the attitude of the Kingdom of Spain contrary to the political and democratic rights in Catalonia.

We are not going to let this opportunity go to waste, he added.

Spain says the 22 defendants in the case are being prosecuted not for their ideas but for defying court orders by holding a banned independence referendum in Catalonia last year and making an illegal attempt to secede.

Some of them have been indicted on charges of rebellion or sedition and face decades in prison in what local media have dubbed the trial of the century in Spains Supreme Court. A preliminary hearing will be held Tuesday, although the defendants are not expected in court until weeks later.

Catalonias banned independence referendum in October 2017, Spains violent crackdown to stop it and a subsequent declaration of independence by Catalan authorities led to an unprecedented seven-month takeover by central authorities of the region of 7.4 million people.

More than a year later, the shockwaves from the Catalan independence movement are still being felt across Spain. A political divide is growing between Catalan and Spanish nationalism, a development that has fueled the momentum of a far-right populist party that recently won a dozen seats in Andalusias regional parliament.

Sanchez emerged clad in three layers of clothes despite normal heating in the modern prison managed by the Catalan government.

His doctor says a permanent chill is the result of not ingesting calories and adds that the 54 year-old has lost more than 5 kilograms (11 pounds) since he began fasting on Dec. 1.

Turull, a former candidate to become the regions chief, was sent to the Lledoners prison infirmary Friday because his kidneys have been affected after he shed over 13 pounds in two weeks. He tricks his body to ignore its hunger with nicotine.

Two more former Catalan cabinet members also joined the strike Dec. 3, but other inmates from a competing separatist political group, including former Catalan Vice President Oriol Junqueras, have chosen not to join, again exposing different approaches within the independence movement.

Turull said his protest comes with a sense of responsibility and he is not looking to starve to death.

Its end depends on how far our strength takes us and on achieving our goal of calling attention to Spains judicial problem, the 52-year-old lawyer said.

Their aim is to press Spains Constitutional Court to rule on appeals about their political rights and their prolonged pre-trial jailing.

The strikers think the court is deliberately trying to block them from reaching the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where they hope to expose the judicial flaws they see at home.

The Spanish top court has recently begun to issue some rulings in a series of appeals and says that its working as fast as the judicial calendar allows it to in dealing with the complexity of a case that affects fundamental rights and a careful analysis of criminal law.

Central Spanish authorities see no reason for the hunger strike.

Their arguments are false. They will have a fair trial because in Spain the judiciary is independent, Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said recently, adding that his government rejects both taking politics to court and politicizing justice.

Although Spains system of appointing top justices and prosecutors has been questioned in and outside Spain, those who think its working list the numerous sentences against the countrys political and economic elite.

One such ruling earlier this year led to Mariano Rajoys ousting as prime minister and brought Sanchez to power.

Sanchez, a Socialist, has tried a conciliatory tone, but his approach has not reduced tensions with the Catalan separatists. Hardening rhetoric against the nationalists has spread across Spains political spectrum and coincided with the ascent of Vox, a far-right party.

Turull, a longtime secessionist, says Spains far right is dragging other parties to its extremism and becoming a machine of generating tensions in Catalonia. He also says Sanchez should consider dialogue more than ever, including on the underlying issue of Catalan self-determination.

No prime minister in Spain has agreed to that in the past, arguing it goes against Spains constitution. With polls showing that Catalan society is evenly divided on the issue of independence, Sanchez instead defends more self-government in Catalonia as a solution, and says he would rather spend time talking about social and economic policies.

There are ways to delve into the core issue without anyone having to give up their fundamental positions, Turull said in the prison visiting room.

But he warned that talks are not going to yield progress if they are done for political gains.

They should be in the realm of utmost discretion, away from the microphones, he said.

The jailed politician rejects the idea that taking a weekly central government meeting to Barcelona amid extraordinary security measures next week is a way of showing affection to Catalonia, as Sanchez has put it.

Separatists are supporting protests against the cabinets presence in the Catalan capital while jockeying for a meeting between the prime minister and Catalonias regional chief, Quim Torra, whose cabinet has been criticized for not responding effectively to violent protesters.

Turull said those favoring secession should be stricter than ever against those who make us look bad.

We have a red line, which is achieving our goals peacefully, using mediation and dialogue. We are never going to put anybody at risk, he declared.

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Thousands of Hungarians protested in Budapest on Sunday against a new labour law and what they see as the increasingly authoritarian rule of right-wing nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Sunday's protest, called "Merry Xmas Mr. Prime Minister" by organisers, was the fourth demonstration in a week by leftist opposition parties, student groups and civilians against Orban's government.

Protesters waved Hungarian and European Union flags as they walked from the historic Heroes' Square towards parliament in crispy winter cold, holding up banners with slogans including "Don't steal" and "Independent courts!".

"Discontent is growing," said Andi, 26, a sociology student who did not want to give her full name. "They have passed two laws this week which ... won't serve Hungarian people's interest."

The new labour law allows employers to ask for up to 400 hours of overtime work per year, leading critics to label it the "slave law".

The government also passed a law to set up new administrative courts that will answer to the government and oversee sensitive issues such as electoral law, protests and corruption issues.

Orban has often clashed with Brussels as he has built a system that his critics see as autocratic, boosting his control over the courts and the media.

Civil rights watchdogs said the new courts law was the latest erosion of democratic institutions under Orban, who rose to power in 2010.

He has since tweaked the election system to favour his ruling Fidesz party and has put loyalists at the head of public institutions, while his allies have enriched themselves.

He has rarely angered large voter groups at home. Earlier this week police used tear gas on protesters at parliament.

Orban was reelected in April on the back of a fiercely anti-immigration campaign, facing a weak and fragmented opposition.

Earlier this month, his government forced a private graduate school, the Central European University, to leave Hungary, as part of Orban's years-long fight with liberal Hungarian-born U.S. billionaire George Soros.

Fidesz said on Saturday, in reaction to the protests, that it was "increasingly obvious that criminals have been part of the street riots organised by the Soros-network."

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French Ambassador to Egypt Stephane Romatet hosted a concert at a Cairo hotel on Thursday, where around 100 children from the French schools of Cairo performed national songs in French for the city's French community.

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During the event, Romatet stressed the depth of Egyptian-French relations in various cultural, scientific and commercial fields and disclosed that the revenues of the ceremony will be used to develop services such as drinking water and education in villages in Assiut governorate.

Present at the ceremony were Minister of Social Solidarity Ghada Wali and Minister of Petroleum Tarek El-Molla, as well as local businessmen and other ambassadors to Egypt.

The ceremony was organised under the supervision of Deputy Consul of France in Cairo Regin Prato.

Also there was French economic chancellor to Carrefour Majid Al Futtaim Herve Majidier, who is also a board member of the French University of Egypt and the Egypt Food Export Council, as well as the co-president of the French Chamber of Commerce in Egypt.

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The ceremony ended with a fashion show of the traditional costumes of the peoples of the African continent.

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World AIDS day falls every year on 11 December, and Egypt marked the event by shedding more light on the most recent endeavors to fight the condition and support people living with HIV.

A campaign launched by Egypt titled Know...test... we will be by your side was the result of cooperation between the National AIDS Programme (NAP), which is affiliated with the Ministry of Health and Population, and the UNAIDS office in Egypt.

The campaign is part of efforts that have been successful in previous years in mobilising different parties to raise awareness and combat the negative stigma that still prevails around the disease.

UNAIDS Egypt country manager Dr Ahmed Khamis shed light on recent facts and data about the disease.

"The prevalence of HIV in Egypt is a mere 0.02 percent, with the number estimated at 16,000. This makes Egypt a low-prevalence country; nevertheless, and according to the UNAIDS database, there is a significant increase in the number of new cases, and the number of people living with HIV/AIDS (PLHA) is six times higher than it was in 2000," he said.

Khamis clarified that the problem with HIV is that a person carrying the virus can be ignorant about his situation for up to 10 years, adding that and according to UNAIDS, an estimated 9.4 million worldwide, which is 25 percent of PLHA, do not know about their infection.

According to the figures issued by Ministry of Health and Population in 2015, only 4 percent of young women in Egypt and 7 percent of young men between the ages of 15 to 24 had correct knowledge about HIV, which adds to the state of false information, stigma and discrimination.

Khamis hailed the successful partnership embodied in the cooperation between Egyptian health ministry, the NAP and UNAIDS to provide free services for people living with HIV, including testing, counseling, and the provision of medication and clinical services. Khamis stressed that this time of the year is always a chance to call on all stakeholders to raise more awareness regarding the nature of HIV and to eradicate the stigma still associated with it.

This day is another chance to push further efforts to raise awareness, help people understand more about HIV, and stop discrimination against people living with the disease," Khamis said.

On behalf of the preventive medicine sector in the Egyptian Ministry of Health and population, Professor Mohamed Abdel-Fattah said that the country is abiding by its plan to end AIDS by 2030, stressing that the goal of 0 percent transmission of the virus from mother to child has already been achieved.

"Egypt has formulated a new strategy for 2022, adopting global targets in the prevention and treatment of HIV. The main focus of the strategy is on increased testing and linking people to healthcare, and then following up with them until full suppression of the virus is attained," he said.

Antiretroviral treatment covers 100 percent of people enlisted and registered in the treatment centres all over the country, and the drugs are completely free of charge, he said.

He added that the ministry is providing specially trained gynecologists for women living with the virus to make sure mother and child stay as healthy as possible during and after the pregnancy, as well as providing psychological support centres.

Further information about the situation in Egypt is provided by Dr Walid Kamal, manager of Egypt's National AIDS Programme, which was established in 1986 at an early phase when HIV was still new on the scene.

In Egypt, most infections occur between the ages of 15 to 49, 80 percent of which are males, Kamal says.

Kamal added that NAP estimates new infections in Egypt in 2017 to number around 1,600 cases. He said that females comprise only 18 percent of detected cases, which is an indication of the stigma that still surrounds the topic.

"Now in 18 governorates in Egypt, there are 24 centres for testing, consulting and providing services to citizens with absolute discretion, and receiving their calls on their various hotlines on a daily basis from 9am till 6pm," he said.

According to UNAIDS, the rate of HIV infections in the Middle East and North Africa has skyrocketed by a whopping 27 percent in 2017 compared to 2010; that is 36,000 new infections each year, which is one of the highest rates worldwide.

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Plan an impressive Christmas dinner with tips and recipes from Chef Ghada El-Tally

Famous Jordanian-Egyptian Chef Ghada El-Tally is a well-known figure on the Arab cuisine scene. A professional cake decorator and designer, she has been in the culinary field for more than 12 years.

El-Tally is a popular media chef whose first programme was on Ro'ya TV channel in Jordan.

Her famous Egyptian programme Zaafran W Vanilla (Saffron and Vanilla) on CBC Sofra channel was the most highly rated cooking show. A publisher of two cook books, she studied for one year at the Royal Academy of Culinary Arts - Les Roches in Amman, Jordan.

El-Tally remembers the beginning, telling Ahram Online that at one point in time, there was no special academy that offered classes for patisserie and cake decoration arts. I taught myself from books and the internet. She later established her centre for culinary arts and cake decoration in Amman, Jordan.

El-Tally gives some tips to help readers plan and organise successful Christmas banquets or parties.

Tally stresses that a food menu should have a wide range of choices to satisfy all your guests tastes. She adds that the best way to make a menu is to take two or three days to write down all dishes and recipes that come to mind. After that, look through it and add or remove items. Then, create a final menu for all food and drinks.

She says that it is preferable for your menu to include meat, poultry and fish dishes as a main course. At least one dish of each kind.

El-Tally advises that the menu should include one or two kinds of appetizers, one of each of the following: soup, salad, vegetables, and two different kinds of juice.

Concerning dessert, she recommends either one big dish of dessert in a large serving bowl or having desserts (two or three recipes) on a menu.

It is better to include one chocolate dessert recipe. Also, keep in mind that your guests will usually bring desserts as a gift.

If there are children among your guests, the hostess should set up a separate place for kids and someone to supervise them.

When arranging the setting of the dining table, it is preferable to keep the dining table empty and to put all tableware (plates, forks, knives, spoons, sporks, bowls, glasses or cups and napkins) on a side table.

If there is enough space for guests they can sit at the dining table. Otherwise, you can use the dining table as a food serving area. Food can be served buffet-style, allowing guests to serve themselves quickly and eat wherever they are comfortable. We can add smaller tables for your guests.

Chef El-Tally shared some of her delicious recipes for Christmas banquets with Ahram Online:

Leg of Lamb Recipe:

Leg of Lamb .Photo: Courtesy of Ghada El-Tally

Ingredients:

Leg or shoulder of lamb

1 onion

4 fresh garlic clove

1 cup yoghurt

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 tbsp pomegranate molasses

1 tsp spices

 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp saffron (optional)

Pinch of nutmeg

Salt and pepper

Small piece of heated charcoal

Method:

In food processor, mix minced onion/garlic until it turns to paste

Add tomato paste, spices, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper blend them well in the food processor

Add the pomegranate and yoghurt over the mixture as a final step

With the tip of a sharp knife make deep cuts on both sides of the leg of lamb. Place it in oven pan

Using a brush, rub the lamb all over with the sauce and inside the cuts to enhance the flavour

Cover tightly with a double layer of tin foil to keep all the meat juices in

Cook it at the highest temperature for 30 minutes

Lower the temperature to 180C and leave it for 120-160 minutes until it is fully cooked

Uncover the lamb

Place glowing coal in small metallic dish

Drop a little oil on the coal to smoke directly over the lamb

Cover pan again quickly with layer of tin foil for a subtle smoked flavour

Red Velvet Cake Recipe

: Red Velvet Cake. Photo: Courtesy of Ghada El-Tally

Ingredients:

2  cups flour

1 cup sugar

Butter (125g) at room temperature

2 tbsp cocoa powder

2 eggs

 tsp vanilla

1cup fresh milk added  tsp vinegar

 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp food color (red color)

3 tbsp water

Method:

Beat butter with sugar by using an electric mixer until it is smoothed

Then add eggs and vanilla one at a time to the mixture and beat well after every addition

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, food colour and cocoa powder, whisk to mix well

Add flour mixture gradually and beat until it is well-mixed

Pour the milk with vinegar and water to a mixture and whisk well to suspend

Grease cake pan with butter and flour

Put dough in a pan

Place pan in the oven

Bake cake at 180C degrees for 35-40 minutes

Let it cool completely

Trim off the top

Crumble by hand or in a blender

Leave cake crumbs aside

Cut the cake into equal layers

Spread whipped cream filling between the cake layers

Spread last layer of whipped cream to cake top or frost the whole cake by using whipped cream

Drizzle crumbs over the top as garnish

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WASHINGTON: Trump admin has waived potential sanctions for Pakistan which can be expected to hit countries downgraded in US rankings of nations that it says infringe on religious freedom.



The Trump administration has waived potential sanctions for Pakistan which can be expected to hit countries downgraded in the United States rankings of nations that it says infringe on religious freedom.



Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Tuesday he had designated Pakistan among countries of particular concern regarding protection for people to worship according to their beliefs.



Pakistan had previously been on a special watch-list for religious freedom. The downgrade means that the US government is obliged to exert pressure on the blacklisted countries to end freedom violations.



Pompeo, however, waived the potential penalties for Pakistan in the US national interest, Associated Press reported.



Other countries on the blacklist include China, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. All had been designated so in last years list as well. Aside from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan received sanctions waivers.



Pakistan earlier on Wednesday rejected the US State Departments move to blacklist the country, calling the development unilateral and politically motivated.



Responding to the US pronouncement, the Foreign Office said, Besides the clear biases reflected from these designations, there are serious questions on the credentials and impartiality of the self-proclaimed jury involved in this unwarranted exercise.



Pakistan rejects politically motivated US pronouncement on religious freedom violations.



Pakistan is a multi-religious and pluralistic society where people of diverse faiths and denominations live together. Around four percent of our total population comprises citizens belonging to Christian, Hindu, Buddhists and Sikh faiths. Ensuring equal treatment of minorities and their enjoyment of human rights without any discrimination is the cardinal principle of the Constitution of Pakistan, it added.INP



ALI HUSSAIN



ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Wednesday rejected the US unilateral and political motivated move of designating it in the list of countries of particular concern for having engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom.



Pakistan rejects the US State Departments unilateral and politically motivated pronouncement in the context of its annual religious freedom report, Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal said while reacting to the US State Departments latest move.



Pakistan was among the 10 countries including Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, designated on Tuesday as countries of particular concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, [and] egregious violations of religious freedom. However, according to a spokesperson for the US Embassy in Islamabad, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issued a waiver for Pakistan and a few other countries. So, it is still listed as a CPC [countries of particular concern] but there will be no sanctions.



Foreign Office sources said that the deputy head of mission of the US Embassy in Islamabad was also summoned to the Foreign Office and a strong protest was lodged with him over the designation.



Pakistan does not need counsel by any individual country how to protect the rights of its minoritiesSadly, the proponents of human rights worldwide close their eyes on systematic persecution of minorities subjected to alien domination and foreign occupation such as in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Dr Faisal further said.



Referring to the incidents of intolerance within the US, he said: An honest self-introspection would also have been timely to know the causes of exponential rise in Islamophobia and anti-Semitism in the US.



Besides the clear biases reflected from these designations, there are serious questions on the credentials and impartiality of the self-proclaimed jury involved in this unwarranted exercise, Dr Faisal said, adding that Pakistan is a multi-religious and pluralistic society where people of diverse faiths and denominations live together.



Around four percent of Pakistans total population comprises citizens belonging to Christian, Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh faiths, he said, adding that ensuring equal treatment of minorities and their enjoyment of human rights without any discrimination is the cardinal principle of the Constitution of Pakistan.



He pointed out that special seats have been reserved for minorities in the Parliament to ensure their adequate representation and voice in the legislation process. He further said that a vibrant and independent National Commission on Human Rights is functioning to address concerns on violation of the rights of minorities.



He said that successive governments have made it a priority that rights of citizens belonging to minority faiths are protected as guaranteed by the law and the Constitution, adding that the higher judiciary of the country has made several landmark decisions to protect the properties and places of worships of minorities.



As a party to seven out of the nine core human rights treaties, he pointed out that Pakistan is submitting its compliance reports on its obligations with regard to fundamental freedoms.



He asserted that the government of Pakistan has devised well established legal and administrative mechanisms to safeguard the rights of its citizens.